Two departments of the Union Health Ministry have different takes on the health impact of the oxytocin (OT) injections widely used on milch cattle to raise milk output across the country.
While the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) of the Health Ministry has favoured strict norms for the sale of the drug, a latest study by the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), a research institute under the Department of Health Research, has given a clean chit to the injection, almost ruling out any harmful impact on human health.
The study which is published in the latest issue of the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR) was aimed to analyse the common perception that long term consumption of artificially OT-laced milk leads to adverse health consequences. There have been allegations that the dairy farmers have been injecting the drugs in dairy animals to induce milk let down. Since OT is also naturally present in milk derived from mother, the study also aimed to determine the stability of OT in milk samples by buffaloes with and without OT injections and to assess the stability of OT in the milk.
NIN researchers Raghu Pullakhandam, Ravindranadh Palika, Sudershan Rao Vemula, Kalpagam Polasa and Sesikeran Boindala, noted that the OT content of the milk samples was similar regardless of OT injections used.
“Further, OT was found to be stable to heat treatment and gastric pepsin digestion while it was rapidly digested during the simulated intestinal digestion.
“These findings suggest that exogenous OT injections do not influence its content in milk. Further, OT present in milk is rapidly degraded during intestinal digestion, ruling out its intestinal absorption and associated adverse health consequences, if any,” concluded the researchers.
The study outcome may serve a blow to the anti-OT lobby which has been seeking its complete ban citing its adverse impact on human and animal health. In fact, the DTAB following allegations from Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, MP and Women and Child Development Minister among other animal activists that its blatant usage made cows barren, had recommended restrictions on its sale in the market.
The DTAB has directed that retail chemists should be asked to maintain records of sale of the drug to ensure curb of the misuse of the drug which not only has been leaving the animals barren but also having harmful side effects on the consumers of such milk.
The Board also favoured that the supply of the oxytocin shall be recorded by the retail chemist at the time of supply giving the name and address of the prescriber, the name of the patient and the quantity supplied. The records will have to be maintained for three years for inspection. The activists had alleged that ingestion of Oxytocin-laced milk can cause serious hormonal complications in consumers.