African Swine Fever outbreak 'out of control' in Assam, central team begins review
A three member team has arrived to assess the worsening situation, officials admit the disease has become endemic with over 45000 pigs dead.
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Guwahati, Nov 6: A three-member team of the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying reached the State to review the present state of African Swine Fever (ASF) prevalence in Assam.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, a senior official of the Animal Husbandry department informed that the outbreak of ASF has gone 'out of control' in the State, largely affecting the piggery sector. The disease has turned into endemic in Assam, but the department is yet to officially declare it due to different technical reasons.
The Central team will visit the ASF affected areas of the State and will assess the impact of the outbreak, in order to make the necessary changes in the National Action Plan for control, containment and eradication of ASF.
African Swine Fever (ASF) was first detected in Assam in 2020. Since then over 45,000 pigs had died, affecting more than 12,500 pig rearers across the State. More than 200 pig rearers have been affected due to outbreak of ASF during this year. Once a booming sector in Assam, most of the pig rearers now quit the business after facing continuous loss.
Meanwhile, sources said that the actual loss caused by the ASF in Assam is much higher than the official data, as most of the cases goes unreported due to the negligence of the officials concerned.
"There is no vaccine avail-able for the disease. So, containing the disease is a challenge for us. The only way to contain the disease is to follow the bio security measures in every farm, cull the affected animals immediately after the outbreak and strictly prohibit the sale of ASF affected pig's meat in the market. But due to lack of proper mass awareness the department could not execute the preventive measures in a proper way in the State," an official of the department said.
At the same time, sources said that unregulated selling of the meat of ASF affected pigs in the market and illegal import of ASF-affected pigs from outside the State are two main reasons behind the outbreak of the disease. In a bid to control the situation, earlier, the State government had imposed a ban on transportation pig to Assam.
But the department has failed to execute the ban order in the ground level in the desired manner.