Our Daily Dose Of Antibiotics

As dairy farmers inject antibiotics in their livestock, chances are high that these are passed on to humans through milk, finds Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment

- Rajeshwari Sinha, Divya Khatter And Amit Khurana

Khairati Lal Chokra, a dairy farmer at Fatehabad in Haryana, injects heavy doses of antibiotics to treat his sick cows and buffaloes. He repeats it every two to three days for a week. Saurabh Shrivastav, another dairy farmer of Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, injects antibiotics for three consecutive days. They do this to treat their cattle whose mammary glands have swollen due to an infection. The milk emits a strange odour and changes colour. “At times it turns curdy or has blood in it,” says Shrivastav. Selling milk is their livelihood and they have to keep their cattle healthy. Chokra has 20 cows and buffaloes and Shrivastav has 92 of them.

In 2018, when Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) tested milk samples from organised and unorganised sectors across the country, it found 77 of them had antibiotic residues beyond permissible limits. But the food regulator did not disclose the antibiotics that were detected or names of the brands tested. Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) filed a Right to Information application but did not receive clear answers despite several follow-ups and an appeal. To understand the reasons for antibiotic misuse and its presence in milk, CSE spoke to a wide range of stakeholders across the country, including farmers of high milk-producing states—Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

BURDEN OF DISEASE