Karachi: A medical board has found the 21,000 Australian sheep free of anthrax and filed a request on Saturday to immediately stop the culling of the animal.
The Sindh High Court constituted the board to determine whether the sheep were infected with the disease.
The SHC had ordered provisional testing by veterinary and microbiological experts of nearly 21,000 sheep imported from Australia.
On Saturday, Sindh Secretary Livestock and other experts vehemently opposed the petitioner’s plea for staying culling of the infected sheep, submitting that the animals are infected with deadly disease of anthrax, among other diseases, that could widely spread to livestock as well as human beings, PPI reported.
Professor Rafiq Khanani of Dow University of Health Sciences informed that anthrax was not that deadly a disease, and that it required close physical contact to transmit from animals-to-animals or human-to-human.
Dr Khursheed Ahmed, Animal Husbandry Commissioner of Ministry of Food Security & Research, submitted that the disease was not deadly, but could be transmitted through mosquitoes or flies.
SHC division bench ordered provisional testing by government and independent veterinary and microbiological experts of the sheep immediately. It also ordered a team of experts to submit its report on September 24 when case will be taken up at 8.30am.
Meanwhile, the court ordered that if no sheep was found infected with the anthrax disease, the culling of animals should immediately be stopped till the next date of hearing.
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