As the United States is getting close to bidding adieu to the face masks after more than a year of being under mandatory masking, the country has now asked the Indian travellers not to bring the cow dung cakes to its territory. The US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) has asked Indian travellers not to transport the waste product as it is prohibited in the country. 

In what would become a significant victory in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the populace in the United States will be free of face masks. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said fully vaccinated people are no longer required to wear masks. 

The recommendation holds true for both indoors and outdoors. Following the CDC's announcement on Thursday, President Joe Biden said, "I think it's a great milestone. A great day. It's been made possible by the extraordinary success we have had in vaccinating so many Americans so quickly." 

Hours after the announcement, the Customs and Border Protection has instructed the Indian travellers not to carry cow dung cakes into the country. The announcement has come after the protection agency has discovered cow dung cakes in the baggage of a passenger from India at the Washington Dulles Airport. The passenger has arrived in the United States from New Delhi on an Air India flight. 

In a press release, the USCBP has said that cow dung cakes from India are prohibited in the United States as they are considered to be potential carriers of the highly contagious Foot and Mouth Disease that affects hoofed animals. Though the press release did not contain any information on why the cow dung cakes were being transported, several reports had said that it may have been due to the false belief that dung offers protection against the COVID-19 viral infection. 

Acting Director of Field Operations for CBP's Baltimore Field Office, Keith Fleming said, "Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is one of the animal diseases that livestock owners dread most, has grave economic consequences, and it is a critical threat focus of Customs and Border Protection's agriculture protection mission." The announcement has come in light of the unprecedented usage of cow dungs in some of the states in India as a medicine to beat the pandemic.

Some of the areas in Gujarat had witnessed hundreds of people taking Cow dung therapy by smearing the cow's excreta on their body and taking a bath on the cow's milk. These visuals had heavily disturbed the nation which is immensely surfaced with the campaign for COVID-19 vaccines. Several doctors in India had issued a warning against the practice of using cow dung in the belief it will cure the pandemic and they asserted that there is no scientific evidence for its effectiveness and it risks spreading other diseases.

The CBP release said that though cow dung is reported to be a vital energy and cooking source in some parts of the world and is also reportedly used as a skin detoxifier, an antimicrobial, and as fertilizer, it is prohibited in the United States. Earlier, speaking to a news agency, Dr. Dileep Mavlankar, Director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar, said, "I don't know if this therapy would really help people. I have never come across any research which suggested that the application of cow dung on the body would increase immunity against coronavirus."