Cattle cannot be slaughtered in 45 days after being given anthrax vaccine and antibiotic as human beings can be infected by consumption of its meat, physicians and veterinary experts said.
‘Vaccinated cattle should not be slaughtered during the period when the antibody grows in its blood. The vaccine needs 21 to 45 days to produce antibody against anthrax bacteria,’ Mushtak Hossain, senior scientific officer of the Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research said.
He said as the vaccine contains the germs of anthrax, people could be infected if they come into contact with the vaccinated cattle or eat their meat before the vaccine produces antibody.
The cattle should not be given antibiotic two weeks before or after vaccination, he said.
ASM Alamgir, senior scientific officer of IEDCR, said, ‘We have to wait 21 to 45 days after vaccination of the cattle for safety.’
The cattle which are being given doses of anthrax antibiotic should not be slaughtered in 21 to 45 days when they are under treatment, said Khan Shahidul Haque, director general of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute.
‘The antibiotic used in the cattle can enter human body if their meat is consumed and thus human body can grow resistant to it,’ he said.
He said, scientifically it is true that the cattle should not be slaughtered before immunisation. ‘But the vaccine contains a small amount of germs, so it might not infect human body,’ he added.
Shahidul said, ‘The government has decided in a meeting of the steering committee that mass vaccination of cattle would be completed one month before Eid-ul-Azha.’
The government has initiated a move to vaccinate all cattle, including cows, goats, buffaloes and lambs in 18 upazilas of eight districts affected by anthrax, said the minister for livestock and fisheries, Abdul Latif Biswas in the steering committee meeting on Tuesday.
The government on September 5 declared ‘red alert’ across the country over the spread of anthrax, but the very next day claimed that the disease was under control.
According to the IEDCR, the total number of anthrax-infected patients in 21 upazilas in 12 districts has risen to 599 till date, with no new cases reported on Thursday.
Some 26 cases of anthrax infection were first detected in Sirajganj on August 19.
Other places where the infection has been reported are Pabna, Tangail, Kushtia, Meherpur, Manikganj, Satk-hira, Lalmonirhat, Rajshahi, Chittagong, Lakshmipur and Narayanganj.
