London, July 26, 2020 (AltAfrica)-A team of six Veterinary doctor in southern Ethiopia has successfully removed 50kg of plastic from a cow following three hours of surgery.

“The cow is alive and in good health,” Dr Firaol Waaqoo told BBC Afaan Oromoo’s Bizuworq Olaanaa.

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Dr. Firaol Waaqo, one of the doctors who performed the surgery told the BBC that the indiscriminate disposal of plastic materials was gradually becoming a problem for even animals.

“Cows can ingest plastics because of lack of pasture or minerals, and the way people disposing of plastic materials is also becoming a problem for the health of livestock,” he added.

Last month, the animal’s owner Areerii Carii brought another of his cows to the vets who removed 20kg of plastic from its stomach.

“Because we have helped him before, he trusted us,” Dr Firaol said.

The Borana people of Ethiopia’s Oromo region are pastoralists who are heavily dependent on livestock but the area they inhabited is semi-arid with little rain.

Ethiopia is believed to have the largest stock of livestock in the world and the largest in Africa contributing about one-third of agriculture’s share of GDP to the country’s economy in the year 1987.

The country is estimated to have a total livestock population of about 78.4 million as of 1988 out of which 31million of them were cattle.

The Oxford Handbooks online, a report in January, indicated the world’s largest livestock producer, records higher cattle death annually, than the stock sold for meat production despite improved veterinary services.