BOPAL, India : Tests on livestock exposed to leaking gas from the Union Carbide pesticide plant showed some animals suffered miscarriages and chromosomal damage, an animal genetics expert said Saturday.
- H. Khan, an associate professor at the College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry near Bhopal, said clinical tests ‘were conducted on water buffaloes, chickens and quail captured in gas affected areas to determine the long-term effects of methyl isocyanate,
Khan said 33 percent of the 130 chickens and quail brought to the college for examination had died since the research project began.
More concrete results, he said, ‘were obtained from tests on buffaloes, the mainstay of Indian livestock because they are more immune to disease than cattle and generally yield more fat rich milk.
Tests were conducted on 23 ‘water buffaloes certified by authorities as having been exposed to ‘methyl isocyanate fumes that leaked from the plant in Bhopal, 350 miles south of New Delhi, Dec. 3, 1984,
More than 1,700 people died from the gas that spewed from the plant and some 200,000 were injured in history’s worst industrial disaster.
The water buffaloes were in “very poor” condition, but recovered after receiving a special diet, Khan said.
“Of the 23 buffaloes brought to the college, four died and researchers have preserved their vital organs, like kidney, lungs, spleens and liver, for further studies,” he said,
Khan said 10 of the buffaloes had conceived since the study began last May. Three aborted immediately and three others aborted during advanced stages of pregnancy.
In almost all cases, the animals’ ‘milk production stopped, he said.
Tests also revealed the animals had developed damaged chromosomes, indicating the presence of foreign chemicals in their bodies and a inability to inhale normal amounts of oxygen, Khan said.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1986
