MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, YOGYAKARTA—Muhammadiyah proclaims that Eid al-Adha on the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah 1444 H falls on Wednesday, 28 June 2023. It is followed by qurbani, an annual sacrifice of an animal offered to Allah during the days of Eid al-Adha. A teaching staff of the Department of Food Technology of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (UAD) Muhammad Mar’ie Sirajuddin mentioned that the qurban animals must be free from zoonoses.
“A zoonosis is an infectious disease that has jumped from a non-human animal to humans,” said Mar’ie in a forum to promote guidelines for worship in Dhul-Hijjah conducted by the Council for Islamic Thought and Judgment of the Muhammadiyah Regional Board of Yogyakarta on Sunday (18/6).
One of the zoonoses is anthrax. It is a severe infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. It commonly affects herbivorous animals such as cows, goats, and sheep and can also be transmitted to humans. Animals infected with anthrax usually get high fever at the early stage of infection. They may become restless, have difficulty breathing, suffer from seizures, collapse, and eventually die.
“Many animals die suddenly without clinical symptoms. Besides, blood may exude from body openings such as the nose, mouth, ears, and anus,” said Mar’ie.
Animals infected with anthrax will excrete the anthrax bacteria before their death. Therefore, if an infected animal is slaughtered, the bacteria will form spores and spread back into the environment, making it difficult to eliminate. Direct transmission between animals is uncommon. Anthrax can be treated by giving antibiotics such as penicillin, streptomycin, oxytetracycline, and sulfonamide.
Prevention of anthrax can be performed through annual vaccination in areas where anthrax is present. In areas free from anthrax, prevention measures are based on monitoring and controlling the movement of animals and surveillance.
Furthermore, Mycobacterium bovis can cause a zoonosis as tuberculosis in cattle. Bovine tuberculosis can be transmitted to humans, cattle, domestic animals such as dogs, cats, other pets, and wild animals.
Moreover, qurban animals must also be free from non-zoonoses, which are not transmitted from animals to humans but affect the animal’s suitability for consumption, threaten populations, and cause economic losses.
One of the non-zoonoses is a Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) in cattle, caused by a virus from Poxviridae. It is transmitted through insect bites such as mosquitoes and flies. Infected cattle undergo an incubation period of 5-14 days before symptoms appear. LSD is a contagious disease in cattle or buffaloes caused by the LSD virus. The characteristic feature of this disease is the appearance of solid lumps on the skin in almost all parts of the animal’s body.
Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is another non-zoonosis. PPR is a viral disease caused by Morbillivirus that affects goats, sheep, some small wild ruminants, and camels. PPR is a contagious disease in goats or sheep caused by the PPR virus. Its symptoms include thick yellowish mucus discharge from the nose and eyelids of goats or sheep. Additionally, there may be sores on the lips, oral cavity, tongue, and diarrhea with blood sometimes.
Mar’ie said that qurban animals must meet the following criteria. First, they must be safe or free from disease-causing agents, hazardous substances, toxins, pathogenic bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides, glass fragments, feathers, and claws. Second, they must be healthy, so their meat contains balanced nutrition for the body. Third, they must be intact that the meat is not mixed with other parts of other species, not torn or damaged, and not incomplete due to mucus or wounds in the organs. Fourth, they must be halal, so they must be slaughtered following Islamic Shariah law (Thayyib).
