The Department of Livestock Services (DLS) has ordered all its offices across the country to strictly monitor the quality of poultry and animal feed.

“We have asked all our offices in the country to closely monitor the quality of all types of animal feed,” Hiresh Ranjan Bhowmik, DLS director general, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The livestock officials will have to regularly inspect animal and poultry feed and take legal actions if it is of substandard quality or mixed with antibiotics, hormones or any other element harmful for human health, he said.

“There is a general directive for such inspection, but we have ordered them to conduct inspections more strictly now,” Hiresh said.

On January 3, the DLS banned import of meat and bone meal (MBM), a protein concentrate for chicken, after discovering that some businesses were importing low-quality MBM through misdeclaration.

Low quality MBM, which may be infected with mad cow disease, can have a serious impact if imported. Besides, there are bacteria, antibiotic or hormone in the MBM, which are harmful for human health, Hiresh said.

Not only MBM, harmful ingredients may be found in other animal feed as well, he said.

The DSL, along with Rab, is also conducting drives against low-quality animal feed and has destroyed a good amount of feed made of tannery waste, which is tainted with chromium, in Hazaribagh and Savar areas this week, he added.

The customs officials at Chittagong Port have also been asked to strengthen inspection of all sorts of animal and poultry feed.

“We asked the customs authorities to test samples of animal and poultry feed. So, there is no way now to import such feed through misdeclaration,” Hiresh said.

Poultry and feed industries praised the government initiative for safe feed, but said banning MBM would have adverse impact on the poultry industry as it would increase the production cost by at least 10 percent.

A tonne of MBM costs around USD 600 whereas its alternative -- fish meal (made of dried sea fish) -- costs USD 1,200-1,350 per tonne, they said at a press conference in the city on Tuesday.

Feed Industries Association Bangladesh and Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council demanded that the government lift the ban and ensure strict monitoring to check import of low-quality animal and poultry feed.