Minister urges coordinated action to curb poultry antibiotic misuse.
State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Sultan Salauddin Tuku has stressed the need for steps to prevent the misuse of antibiotics in poultry, aiming to reduce poultry production costs and ensure quality protein for consumers.
“It is essential to take a coordinated approach with poultry farm owners, feed producers and the government to reduce poultry production cost and to ensure quality food for the consumers”, he said.
The state minister made the remarks as the chief guest while addressing the workshop titled “Implementation of Fish Feed and Animal Feed Act, 2010 and enforcing quality control” at PTI auditorium in Gazipur Sadar this morning.
He said if the coordination is ensured, poultry farming will be profitable, which will also ensure cost-effective safe protein supply for the consumers.
The marginal farmers are the core driving force behind the progress of country’s poultry and livestock sector, Tuku said, adding that the main objective of the government is to support them [marginal farmers] and creating new entrepreneurs in the sector.
To materialize the goal, the state minister said the farmers have been brought under the support of farmer card so that they can enjoy easy credit facilities like agriculture, electricity rebate and government incentives.
Regarding the excessive use of antibiotic, he said unnecessary antibiotic use makes the food security risky and rising the production cost also.
To develop awareness among farmers, he said the livestock officials should work more actively at the grassroots level for building awareness among the farmers regarding the using of drugs and maintaining sustainable production in scientific way.
“The government wants to keep the production cost at tolerable level so that the consumers can get safe food in fare price”, he told the workshop.
Highlighting the poultry industry as the highly potential sector in the country, he said the country is already exporting the hatching eggs which are a positive advancement of the sector. The government is working to enhance the export of animal products to the international markets along with fulfilling the local demand, he added.
For employment generation and reinforcing the rural economy, Sultan Salauddin said there is no alternative to create new entrepreneurs.
Regarding the allegation of selling horse meat in Gazipur, the state minister said the government is fully aware about the allegation and the concerned authority along with the law enforcing agencies will take necessary action in this regard.
Fisheries and Livestock secretary M Delwar Hossain spoke at the function as the special guest while Deputy Commissioner of Gazipur M Nurul Karim Bhuiyan presided over the function.
District livestock office will organize the workshop while Director General of the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) M Shahjahan Khan also addressed, among others.
