Restriction imposed on pig or pork transportation
Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: With yet another epicentre of African Swine Fever (ASF) coming to light, the number of ASF epicentres in the state has risen to four this year. The newest epicentre is at Champara, Pamua, in the Ghilamara Development Block near Dhakuakhana in the Lakhimpur district.
According to information, reports of the death of some pigs belonging to Manju Doley Chungkrang came to the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department from the Dhakuakhana area. The department later confirmed the deaths of the pigs due to ASF. Under the Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act, 2009, the department declared the affected village an ASF epicentre.
The department notified all villages within a one-kilometre radius around the epicentre, designated as “Infected Zone”, and all villages falling under the 10-kilometre radius around the epicentre are designated as “Surveillance Zone”.
The Lakhimpur District Magistrate imposed some restrictions on the infected zone — (i) no live pig or pig feed or pork and pork products shall be allowed to be taken out or brought into the zone.
(ii) No carrier of goods or animals shall carry any animals from or out of the infected zone.
(iii) Carriage of animals (pigs) through roadways or railways through the declared infected zone, however, is allowed provided the animal is not unloaded in any place within the zone till the issuance of a sanitisation certificate by the competent veterinary authority.
(iv) No person is allowed to take out any pig alive or dead which is infected or suspected to be infected with African Swine Fever (ASF).
(v) No person is allowed to carry any pig feed or bedding materials or other materials, namely, carcasses, skin or other parts or products of such animals which have come in contact with any animal infected or suspected to be infected from African Swine Fever (ASF).
(vi) No person, organisation or institution shall hold any animal market, animal fair or animal exhibition and carry on any activity which involves the grouping of pigs within the zone. Provided that the competent veterinary officer may, suo motu or on application made to him in this behalf, relax the provision in relation to other species of animals other than pigs, if he is satisfied that, in the public interest, it is necessary to accord such relaxation.
(vii) No person shall bring or attempt to bring into the market, fair, exhibition or other congregation or to any public place any pigs which are infected or suspected to be infected with African Swine Fever (ASF).
In the recent past, the department found three epicentres, one each in Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Kamrup districts.
Reports of deaths of pigs from Amoni in the Nagaon district today with ASF-like symptoms have surfaced. The department has collected blood samples of the dead pigs for testing to ascertain if the reason behind the deaths is ASF. If the test shows ASF positive, the department will declare it an epicentre, and the district administration will impose prohibitions.
ASF is a pig-to-pig infectious disease that does not have a vaccine as yet in the world. Its mortality rate is 100 per cent.
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