KARACHI: A genetically engineered hormone used to enhance milk production in buffaloes and dairy cows is still being sold in parts of the metropolis despite the ban imposed on its import and sale across the country, it emerged on Tuesday.

Studies have shown that the hormone — recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) — has serious health risks for animals who are administered the hormonal injection and the humans who consumed their milk.

According to sources, the imported hormone is banned in the EU, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and even India though it is still in use in the US where hormone-treated products are labelled and priced lower than organic products.

In Pakistan, the sources added, the hormone had been in use for the past many years and its recent ban was said to have caused a significant drop in the production of fresh unpasteurized milk.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, dairy farmers at Cattle Colony said the banned hormone (earlier priced Rs375 for a single injection) was being secretly sold for Rs1,000.

“A number of farmers running into losses due to reduced milk production are desperate to get the hormonal injection, as they have no other option to fulfil the gap in milk production and recover their losses,” he said, adding that the hormone-dependent buffalo that used to give eight litres of milk a day was producing only two to three litres of milk.

However, Shaukat Mukhtar representing the Dairy Farmers Association said the hormonal injection just disappeared from the market and was no longer being used after it was banned. “The rBST remained a registered drug with the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for 15 years and had been in use throughout the county until recently when it got banned,” he said.

Mr Mukhtar argued that scientists had a divided opinion about harmful effects of the hormone, which was used in the US.

“Seventy per cent of medicines meant for cows are used in buffaloes. So, it’s not strange that the same was being done in the case of rBST since we have no culture of research in our country,” he said in reply to another question.

He was of the opinion that the government should have given at least three months to dairy farmers to prepare themselves to reduce the impact of the ban on their business. “The sudden ban is a big industrial loss and will have long-term effects,” he believed.

Most dairy farmers that Dawn spoke to expressed ignorance about negative effects of the hormone and believed that it not only helped improve milk production but also meat since it also increased animals feed intake.

“Most dairy farmers at Cattle Colony keep buffaloes for only one lactation period, as they can’t afford to rehabilitate them. The animals are sold out, usually for slaughter, after a year or so,” another dairy farmer explained, adding that the period of animal stay at the farm was too short to experience long-term effects of the hormone.

The artificial hormone is solely made for use in dairy cows. In Pakistan, however, this hormone is also used for buffaloes comprising 90 per cent of dairy herd, as buffalo milk is generally preferred over cow milk. Dairy farmers used this hormonal injection to enhance milk production in animals when they start getting dry. The practice in Pakistan has been to to give the hormone on alternate days rather than the recommended gap of 14 days for administration.

Unsafe hormone

Dairy farmers in Punjab, however, have a different story to explain as the region has the practice of rehabilitating dry animals. Sharing his experience, Sarfaraz Ahmed, a Sargodha-based dairy farmer, told Dawn that he started the dairy business five years ago with 120 buffaloes. He expanded his farm in stages and increased the animal count to 300 within two years. But he started experiencing a downslide in business, he claimed.

“Like other farmers, I also used this hormone. But I noticed that my animals were gradually draining out. They started falling ill one after another, with no apparent reason. When I stopped giving them the injection, they become so weak that they couldn’t even stand on their feet and their milk production drastically dropped,” he said.

Most of his animals developed lameness and were infected with mastitis (a potentially fatal mammary gland infection) and, within five years, he was left with only 50 animals.

“They could only live for one and a half years,” he added.

Sarfraz couldn’t solve the mystery behind the death of his animals until he met a Lahore-based vet this year who told him about the harmful effects of rBST. Convinced with his arguments, he raised this issue with government departments but couldn’t get a positive reply. Finally, he filed a petition with the Lahore High Court this year and got a stay order against the import, sale and purchase of the hormone.

The Punjab livestock department, sources said, also became a party in the case and decided to explore the truth behind the rBST. An experts’ panel was set up that convinced the DRAP board to cancel the registration licence of the company importing and distributing the hormone in Pakistan this month. The case is still undecided.

Registered as a drug in Pakistan by the drug regulatory authority, the hormone had never been reviewed periodically as required under the law, the sources said.

Another violation relates to Section (a) of the Drug (Licensing, Registering and Advertising) Rules, 1976, according to which if a drug gets banned, withdrawn from the market or face certain restrictions in the US, European Union countries, Canada, Japan, Australia, then it shall be the responsibility of the manufacturer in Pakistan or as the case may be, the indenter, to immediately withdraw the drug from the market in Pakistan or, as the case may be to impose similar restriction and to inform the registration board within 14 days of such an information having come to his knowledge and having taken the necessary action.

The registration board after getting the said intimation is also bound to take similar action for the same drug available from other sources within the shortest possible time. That never happened in Pakistan.

A July 2015 report of the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the World Health Organisation stated that the reports about the safety of rBST use were incorrect and misleading because they were based on incomplete data.

“The GMO milk contains increased amounts of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I), a hormone identified as a key factor in the growth and proliferation of every human cancer. IGF-I is identical in human and cow.

“Even Monsanto [the manufacturer of rBST] has admitted that IGF-I levels in rBST treated cow’s milk is higher than in untreated cow’s milk,” the report stated.

A Canadian study published in 2003 explained that there was about 50pc and 25pc increase in the risk of lameness and mastitis, respectively, in the rBST-treated cows. It also linked a number of adverse effects on the reproductive performance with the use of rBST that, it stated, reduced the lifespan of dairy cattle.

“These included a substantial increase in the risk of non-pregnancy and a slight increase in days open in cows that do conceive. There was also inconclusive evidence of an increased risk of cystic ovaries and twinning,” it said.

Part of the experts’ panel that assisted the Punjab government and contested the case against the rBST on the DRAP board, Dr Masood Rabbani heading the microbiology department and the diagnostic laboratory of the University of Veterinary Sciences, Lahore, said researches done in other parts of the world had shown similar results.

The rBST, he said, was not suitable for hot climatic conditions like Pakistan as it also increased body temperature of the animal. In case of a buffalo, it’s more harmful since the animal had few sweat glands. The calf on mother’s milk was also affected by rBST if the mother was on the hormone.

“Anything unnatural being injected to animals is against animal rights and welfare. We should also find ways to reject the use of another hormone, Oxytocin, which is used for milk letdown. I believe that it’s not that dangerous but studies are needed to assess its effects on animals and humans,” he said in reply to a question.

Punjab livestock secretary Nadeem Sadiq said the province had lost a huge number of livestock due the widespread use of rBST. The hormone, he said, was used in only 20 countries across the world.

“High occurrence of mastitis means the animal would be on antibiotics for 150 days per year and its milk shouldn’t be consumed during that period. But you can imagine that farmers here won’t do that [in the absence of regulation],” he said.

Published in Dawn September 30th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play