If you have been procuring raw cattle milk, then ensure that it is boiled properly before you consume it.
As World Zoonosis Day being observed on Wednesday, experts warned that consumption of raw or semi-cooked milk or milk from infected cattle can cause severe infection. Even cheese, icecream, butter prepared from raw or unpasteurised milk are unhealthy as they contain harmful bacteria which can cause Brucellosis, a bacterial infection commonly found in animals.
"Around 5,00,000 cases of Brucellosis are reported globally, spread through consumption of milk from infected or reservoir cattle and goats to man," said Dr Ashok Kumar, Additional Director General, ICAR(Animal Husbandry).
Speaking at a conference on 'scientific updates on zoonotic disease control' at the AIIMS here, he pointed out that animals can play a vital role as carriers of many threatening diseases like Brucellosis, Japanese Encephalitis, Ebola, Cremian Congo Hemmorhagic Fever (CCHF) and many more new infections.
Therefore, common preventive measures at both veterinary and medical sectors should be adopted with alacrity, he added.
Dr Uday Kakroo from Millennium India Education Foundation (MIEF), which had oragnised the conference along with the Division of Clinical laboratory & Molecular Medicine AIIMS and ICAR, said that currently, over 300 zoonosis of multiple etiologies, are of growing national and international significance.
For instance, there are one million cases and 4,21,000 deaths due to tuberculosis annually. Rabies is a highly fatal viral zoonosis, claiming 55,000 lives, mainly the children annually. About, 2000 to 20,000 cases of human anthrax occur every year.
Several zoonotic diseases are on the rise in the country mainly due to unawareness and unhygienic conditions, said Dr K Anand Kumar from Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologicals limited (IIl), manufacturer of veterinary
biologicals.