Why are pigs injected with sedatives before slaughter?

The discovery of more than 5,000 pigs injected with tranquilizers at a slaughterhouse in Ho Chi Minh City has caused outrage in the online community. So why do traders use drugs that are harmful to health?healthThis?

According to information from the authorities, more than 5,000 pigs lying around in the largest slaughterhouse in Ho Chi Minh City were injected with Combistress. This is a drug containing Acepromazine and Atropine, which has the effect of inhibiting the central nervous system, anti-stress, anti-vomiting. This type is often used as a pre-anesthetic in surgeries.

As a general recommendation, this drug should be stopped 5-7 days before butchering the animal to ensure safety for consumers.

When pigs are injected with sedatives right before slaughter, the residual amount of the drug in the meat will affect their health.

Specifically, eating pork injected with sedatives will cause digestive disorders, cardiovascular effects, tremors in the limbs, changes in blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, weight gain, constipation, allergies, drowsiness, prolonged depression, reduced ability to regulate body temperature...

In particular, when this drug remains in the body for a long time, it can cause bone loss, bone marrow cancer, and a very dangerous reduction in red blood cells.

Symptoms are more severe in the elderly and children.

Although the above harmful effects of sedatives on human health when using foods containing this substance have been warned and banned for more than 2 years, since the discovery of traders using sedatives Prozil and Combistress, slaughterhouse owners still continue to use them on a large scale.

That's because when pigs are injected with Combistress before slaughter, the meat will have a very eye-catching color, brighter red than usual, the meat is close to the skin, very little fat, always fresh and supple - the type of meat product that is preferred by consumers.

Therefore, this is also a way to identify meat injected with sedatives: always bright red like beef, the meat is wet and when cooked the meat releases a lot of water.