Trends in the hormone and antibiotic use for cattle fattening in Bangladesh

The study was conducted to identify trends in the use of hormones and antibiotics, and traditional practices in cattle fattening in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 150 farmers involved in beef cattle fattening through a survey questionnaire. The average numbers of cattle and beef cattle per household were 4.27 ± 1.94 and 3.54 ± 1.31, respectively. An average of 44.67 percent of the beef farmers selected indigenous (zebu) cattle and the rest of the farmers kept a variety of crossbred cattle for fattening. The average age of cattle at the start of fattening was 21.61 ± 8.07 months, the average duration of fattening was 9.71 ± 4.29 months, and farmers marketed cattle at an average weight of 285.50 ± 50.80 kg. The highest percentage (34.67%) of farmers ate beef once a week and 5.33 percent of farmers never ate beef. Among beef farmers, 53.33% and 62.67% applied hormones and antibiotics, respectively, to their beef cattle. The highest percentage of farmers used hormones (33.87%) and antibiotics (29.79%) once a week and the rest of the farmers used them at various intervals. The majority of farmers did not follow any withdrawal period before slaughtering beef cattle for application of hormones (85.48%) and antibiotics (83.58%), whereas the remaining farmers maintained different withdrawal periods. It can be concluded that more than half of the farmers applied hormones and about two-thirds of the farmers used antibiotics for beef fattening, and most of the farmers did not follow the recommended withdrawal periods before slaughter, which is of public health concern.