The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has demanded of the government to immediately ban the import of animals from India, as the imported sick and infected livestock and poultry are posing a serious threat to both the human health and life.
In a statement issued on Friday, the LCCI spokesman Mian Nauman Kabir said that a number of research reports had already proved that India was origin of Mad Cow disease and the import of a few infected/sick animals from that country could be a source of that contagious and dangerous disease in Pakistan and could harm 130 million local animals.
He said that the LCCI was ready to join hands with the government in its quest for meeting the shortage of meat in the country and arresting the prices of the commodity.
He said that the research papers of two UK-based universities had unveiled that the Mad Cow disease reached UK through import of bone meal from India mixed with human bones extracted from dead bodies thrown in Ganges River.
He said that the report makes the import of livestock from India questionable, particularly when Pakistan lacks sophisticated laboratories.
Nauman said that instead of importing animals from India the government should come up with a package of incentives for local livestock sector therefore it could produce enough animals in the country that are sufficient to meet the needs of local population.-PR