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'Love' hormones being injected into cows to yield more milk

The Delhi drug department has launched a special drive against the illegal sale and possession of oxytocin, a chemical commonly known as 'love hormone'.

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The Delhi drug department has launched a special drive against the illegal sale and possession of oxytocin, a chemical commonly known as 'love hormone', which is injected into cows and buffalo to make them yield more milk.

A source in the department said officials have already seized a sizeable amount of the drug, banned under schedule H of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, following searches conducted at the premises of certain dairy owners.

Normally, oxytocin is administered to pregnant women to induce labour, but when it is used arbitrarily it can be harmful.

The source said because cows are injected with the hormone, the milk they produce, too, has traces of the hormone. "Such milk leads to irregular hormonal growth in children," the source said.

The drive was conducted following reports that dairy owners were using the hormone to enhance milk production. The chemical makes milk flow faster by causing the cow's uterus to start contracting. It is used to force the cow to give milk after being beaten, starved, and put under stress, the source said.

The chemical is available all over India in small paper packets or red capsules with the label 'veterinary oxytocin'. "We keep carrying out special drives," Ravikant, assistant drug controller, Delhi, said. "The presence of such drugs in terms of quantity is not alarming in the national capital, but we are keeping a check on its growing use."

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