Most of the meat seized by authorities from 2014 to 2017 has turned out to that of bulls and buffaloes in a DNA analysis, and just a few were of cows, The Times of India reported. The meat was seized by police and animal husbandry officials in various states.
The National Research Centre on Meat has made the observations in a yet-to-be-published study based on an analysis of 112 samples of meat. Of these, just eight samples (7%) were found to contain beef. The National Research Centre on Meat is an institute under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
The centre carried out the research on 139 samples it had received from the police and animal husbandry departments in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Of the 139 samples, only 112 were suitable for DNA testing, The Times of India reported.
The centre’s authorities suspected that as many as 69 of the samples would be cow meat. But this was disproved. “Interestingly, three samples suspected to be cow meat were found to be camel meat, and the sample suspected to be a dog was a sheep,” the researchers said.
The institute has received 80 more samples of meat in 2018, and their analysis followed a “similar trend”, The Times of India reported.
Consumption of beef is banned in many states in the country, and there have been several incidents of mob lynching and attacks on people purported to be transporting cows for the purpose of killing them for meat.
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