The government should impose complete ban on animal imports from the USA after the confirmation of “mad cow” disease in California. Former CEO of the Punjab Agriculture and Meat Company Dr Hamid Jalil made these remarks in a statement here on Monday.
He said that that after the confirmation of mad cow disease in California farms by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it is mandatory to stop import of live animals from such country, as prescribed under the OIE Rules/guidelines.
Dr Hamid Jalil demanded that the federal government and all provincial governments must notify ban on import of live cattle from the USA to save Pakistan from this dangerous disease. He said that an emergent program might be initiated to identify and register all farms where the imported Holstein cattle have been kept.
Provincial governments must start a
surveillance program to test/screen out all cattle imported from USA.
He disclosed that some of the corporate dairy farms in Punjab and Sindh have imported Holstein cattle from the USA and North America. Whereas, under the rules/guidelines of world organisation for the trade of animals and products (OIE-France), if any country imports cattle from such country having incident of mad cow disease can also be banned for exporting livestock and its products.
