Banned drug injected into cattle is poisoning your milk

If yoursquore a stickler for dietary discipline and insist on that warm glass of milk every morning herersquos news that could make you look at the glass half empty Prolonged investigations conducted by MiD DAY have revealed that a banned drug called oxytocin is being administered to buffalos in many tabelas across the city Oxytocin while it helps cattle produce more milk has severely harmful effects on not just the health of the animals it is injected into but humans who consume milk that comes from them Doctors have confirmed that the drug decreases the reproductive ability of cows over time eventually making them barren It also reduces the lifespan of cattle Studies have linked the consumption of milk contaminated with oxytocin to the early onset of puberty in children which is on an alarming rise these days Despite a ban on artificially injecting the hormone into cattle this drug is being supplied secretly to different tabelas as we discovered in the course of our twomonthlong investigations Our reporter speaks to a worker at Ghaswala Dairy in Jogeshwari West who admitted to using oxytocin PicsSuresh KK Dr V L Deopurkar director of research Veterinary University Nagpur explained ldquoOxytocin or Pitocin is an injection used on pregnant women to induce labour Commercial tabelas are using oxytocin injections almost twice a day on cattle Upon injecting the drug the milk which is otherwise stored in the udder of the cattle for its calves is also released giving a few additional litres of milkrdquo However the action of the hormone causes the uterus of the cattle to contract causing immense pain Extracting the milk in this manner also deprives the calves of nutrition Maternal antibodies present in the milk are responsible for making the calves immune to several diseases Being denied the milk weakens their chances of survival Sale banned Section 12 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act the Food and Consumable Substances Adulteration Act and the Drug Control Laws ban the sale of the drug without a prescription from a registered medical practititioner A chemist selling it over the counter without a prescription can lose his licence Shopkeepers caught selling the hormone and dairy owners using it on cattle can be imprisoned for upto 5 years But these laws exist only on paper Dairies are using the drug with impunity and without prescriptions having obtained it from private suppliers Our reporters tried to get their hands on a sample of oxytocin at a tabela in Gundawali Andheri East here they met Sohail who delivers bottles of the drug in sealed containers to tabelas across western suburbs PicsSuresh KK Speaking to MiD DAY FDA Joint Commissioner Vigilance Sanjay Kale said ldquoIt is true that the Government of India has acknowledged the negative effects of oxytocin and has declared it as a schedule substance which means this drug can only be supplied against prescription from a registered medical practitioner Sanjay Kale Illegal stocking and sale of oxytocin is banned and can also lead to penal actions against those offenders as per the provisions laid under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act of 1940rdquo Asked if any action would be taken against tabela workers violating the law every day he answered in the affirmative pointing out that the matter of cruelty to animals would have to be dealt with by the Animal Husbandry department Oxytocin can cause breast prostate cancer Maneka Gandhi Speaking on the matter Maneka Gandhi the champion of animal rights in the country said ldquoThe Drug Controller General of India has recently sent a letter to every state drug controller saying that before any animal gives meat or milk or egg it should be completely free of hormones or antibiotics If the practice of administering injections twice every day continues the drug stays in the milk and the meat and causes serious ailments like breast cancer and prostate cancer also impotency in men Cattle become barren within three years of continuous ministration of the drug Since the 1990s I have been raising the issue and asking the government to take strict action but my pleas have gone unheardrdquo STAGE I Stop 1 Malpadongri near WEH Andheri East Our first stop was a tabela adjacent to the southbound carriageway of the Western Express Highway in Andheri East in Malpadongri Approaching an elderly man stationed there we narrated a fabricated tale about a buffalo in our native village that was producing sparse milk as its calf had died soon after its birth We requested for a medicine that could help the buffalo give more milk Our reporters found cartons of the drug dumped on the floor of the tabela at Unit 2 of Aarey Milk Colony these are pumped into the cattle by workers To make our story more credible we said that the drug theyrsquod give us would be dispatched through a relative who was leaving for our native place that very evening Thoroughly convinced the man instructed his son to give us a bottle of lsquomedicinersquo without taking its name Soon the man returned from a small shanty holding a sealed plastic bottle without a label or brand name pasted on it The bottle was sealed He instructed us that a single dose of 5 ml was sufficient at a time and that the drug in the bottle contained 20 doses We paid a mere Rs 30 for the bottle Having managed to wangle a sample of oxytocin from the tabela at Aarey Milk Colony unit 2 our reporters prepare to send it for testing PicsSuresh KK Stop 2 Gundawali near WEH Andheri East Here we retold the concocted tale to the men The seniormost among them told us that they have stopped using the medicine as the government has banned it When we insisted he pointed towards a man in his late 20s identifying him as the delivery boy for the drug to tabelas across the western suburbs The youth immediately gave us a bottle of the drug and also his phone number for future deliveries We were asked to pay Rs 20 The bottle was identical to the one we were given in Malpadongri Milk collected from the tabelas were stored in sterilised containers and placed in iceboxes to be sent to the lab for testing Tryst with the supplier The young man introducing himself as Sohail said he was a resident of Kalyan and admitted to supplying the drug in plastic containers to tabelas across the western suburbs as per their needs He referred to the drug as doodh ka dawa or bulb as it comes in white plastic containers of 100 ml All the samples we procured from the tabelas seemed to have been delivered by this one youth as the bottles they came in were identical He added he had an associate who caters to the needs of tabelas in the eastern suburbs The tabela workers usually ring Sohail when they run out of their stocks and then the delivery is made As a matter of caution the drugs are given to tabelas that are part of an established chain of supply Senior lab analyst Shreenath Nair tests the samples at a lab in Sion All the samples tested positive for oxytocin PicAbhinav Kocharekar Doctors speak Dr Parminder Singh Endocrinologist Ludhiana In the 1990s menarche occurred among girls at age 16 This age has come down drastically and nowadays anxious parents come to us when their daughters show signs of premature puberty at age 9 or 10 Cases of male children being diagnosed with gynaecomastia breast enlargement are on the rise This is due to hormonal imbalances created by exogenous source of hormones like oxytocin in milk and dairy productsu00a0The Health Ministry and Drug Controller General of India should carry out rigorous checks to curb the misuse of hormones on cattle Laboratories should be established to check the level of hormones and insecticides in food and dairy products The lab reports seen here clearly indicate that all the samples collected by our reporters contained the harmful drug Dr Shashank Joshi endocrinologist Lilavati Hospital Oxytocin or growth hormones can lead to disruption of the endocrine system which would lead to cases of gynaecomastia in male and weight gain and pubertal disturbance in girls Dr Usha Sriram Chennaibased endocrinologist Parents these days understand the problems faced by their children and seek timely medical intervention which helps to curtail the problem which can cause physical and psychological unrest Effects of Oxytocin On cattle Causes the cattlersquos uterus to contract leading to excruciating pain when they are milked Reduces reproductive ability of cows making them barren Cuts short their lifespan Releases the milk stored for calves depriving them of nutrition On humans Hormonal imbalances Early puberty in girls weight gain Gynaecomastia or development of breasts in male children The moment of truth Lab reports Stop 3 Dairy near Aarey Milk Colony Unit II We had been told that the drug was used commonly in tabelas under the purview of Aarey Milk Colony We found no evidence of this till we reached Unit 2 of the Colony Here a certain Chulbul was convinced by our story and agreed to give us a small quantity of the drug He took us along to a storeroom in the premises removed a bottle from the small cupboard With the help of a syringe he removed 2530 ml of the drug from the bottle poured into another bottle and handed it to us in exchange for Rs 30 He also helpfully explained to us how we were to inject it into the neck of our buffalo Stop 4 Sanjay Nagar Pathan Wadi Malad East The clandestine manner in which this drug is circulated around tabelas became clear to us at this stop One of the workers who was ready to hand us a bottle was stopped by another employee who warned against giving the drug to a stranger We coaxed and cajoled but were asked to leave at once Stop 5 Ghaswala Dairy Jogeshwari West Here a worker admitted to using oxytocin but wouldnrsquot provide us a bottle saying he was running short on the stocks STAGE II Sample collection We returned to each of the tabelas to get milk samples that would establish if the drug was indeed being administered to the cattle Malpadongri The worker refused to hand over any milk saying that it was supplied only to dairies We churned out yet another concocted tale about desperately needing milk for a religious ceremony and the worker acquiesced grudgingly We managed to get a litre of milk by paying Rs 55 The fluids were stored in sterilised containers and placed in an icebox Milk was obtained from the tabela in Gundawali in a similar manner Aarey Milk Colony Unit 2 We faced stiff resistance at the outset The owner refused to sell us milk directly saying he only delivered to different Aarey centres We followed a tempo that was transporting the morningrsquos collection to the tabela to the dairy We urged the driver to give us some milk and he obliged Getting another sample from Sanjay Nagar Pathan Wadi was easy Ghaswala Dairy The owner refused to sell milk to us telling us to go and buy it from the Ghaswala Dairy shop We went there and purchased the milk STAGE III Laboratory test results The collected samples were handed over to Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Laboratory in Sion to be examined for the presence of oxytocin Dr Sasikumar Menon assistant director at the lab and senior analyst Shreenath Nair tested the samples They detected oxytocin in the bottles we had collected from different tabelas as well as in the milk we had purchased from each of themu00a0