The report disclosed that a research team of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University found antibiotic residues in at least 26 percent of chicken samples collected from 73 poultry farms in and around the capital city. Earlier, a Dhaka University study also found chromium ranging from 249 micrograms (mg) to 4561mg per kg in chicken that consumed feed manufactured with tannery waste. The Livestock Department has no labs of its own to test antibiotic residue in food. It is not possible for them to determine the actual extent of toxic residue in food consumed by the poultry birds as well as in human bodies who eat those birds or eggs. As the heat needed for normal cooking cannot destroy antibiotic residues, physicians warned of antibiotic residues that expose the consumers, particularly children and the elderly, to health risks — mainly vulnerable to liver and kidney diseases. Use of tannery waste makes poultry feed cheap while antibiotics help prevent and reduce deaths of chicks. Antibiotics are sold freely at the sales points which help the poultry farmers to get easy supply of those and also to use them at random to protect chicks from diseases and death. To avoid risks, traders use antibiotics several times from farm level to the sale of chickens.
Experts said if one consumes chicken and eggs having antibiotics beyond permissible level for five to six years, he/she will develop antibiotic resistance syndrom. This means if similar antibiotics are prescribed for any disease, it will not work, and it will pose a major health risk.
It is high time for authorities concerned to take decisive steps to bring this criminal syndicate to book in the interests of protecting public health. Against the run of unaccountability at all levels of the public services delivery points, the government should be proactive to contain free or random use of antibiotics in raising poultry and thus to keep human health safe.
