Meat of sheep, infected with scabby mouth disease, might land up in butcher shops in Karachi, elsewhere in Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD: According to a report, a ship carrying thousands of sheep infected with scabby mouth disease was denied berthing by Bahraini authorities. The ship arrived at Bahrain on August 29 but after the refusal to dock, it began its way back to Australia. However, on the way the ship ended up at Port Qasim in Karachi where the sheep were unloaded and handed over to an importer. Given the lack of monitoring and regulation of the meat that is sold in our markets, it may well be that the meat of these diseased sheep lands in butcher shops in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan.
The government needs to ensure that this does not happen and the infected sheep should be destroyed and the importer punished. In any case, people should refrain from eating the meat of sheep in the coming weeks as a precautionary measure.
Iftikhar Mirza
Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2012.
