Following mid-day’s report on Tuesday highlighting how a shortage of veterinary officers at the Deonar Abattoir threatened Mumbai’s meat supply, the Maharashtra Animal Husbandry Department has issued a temporary relief order. In response to the staffing crisis, it has reinstated nine livestock development officers (LDOs) at the Deonar slaughterhouse to ensure smooth animal inspections and operations until July 31.

Sources said the LDOs originally operated under the State’s Animal Husbandry Department. However, after internal restructuring, several posts were either revised or dissolved, and the responsibility of deploying LDOs at the Deonar facility was transferred to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Earlier, 15 LDOs were stationed at Deonar, but all were transferred to various locations across Maharashtra. While six of them received new postings, nine were left to manage inspections. These nine continued overseeing the mandatory health checks of animals brought in for slaughter.