Letters to the Editor

Keeping African Swine Fever at bay

Sayings are universal truths, if not absolutely, to a large extent. And prevention is better than cure is one such saying. This saying applies to almost every ail, including the menace of African Swine Fever. African Swine Fever is dreaded because it has no cure without any invention of vaccine or medicine as yet. Thus the only cure for this zoonotic disease is 'prevention'.

The November 28, 2022, front-page report of The Sentinel should have made every right-thinking people rack up their brains. The report said that veterinarians of the state had identified 13 epicentres of African Swine Fever in several districts in the state in October this year. The zoonotic disease has dented the farm economy in the state to an extent since Assam is a supplier of pigs to its neighbouring states in the Northeast. Veterinarians detected 116 epicentres of African Swine Fever in the state since the last part of 2020, affecting 14,345 farm families. The crux of the problem is that a section of pig farmers is reluctant to inform the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary about the symptoms of African Swine Fever in their pigs as they are apprehensive about culling. Since African Swine Fever has a 100 per cent fatality rate, culling is a must, without which the fast infection of the virus will affect other pig farms. Thus, it is awareness among pig farmers in informing the symptoms of the fever at their nearest veterinary hospitals that can keep the zoonotic disease at bay, nothing else.

Topo Singha,

Milan Nagar, Barbari, Guwahati

National character

The long-awaited soccer World Cup is on in Qatar. Most of the soccer-crazy fans have assembled in Qatar to cheer their respective nation which is no doubt a very spectacular sight for TV viewers. Yours truly also being a soccer-crazy fan is no exception. Accordingly, on one fine evening, I witnessed the match between Germany, the power house in world soccer, and a former winner of the World Cup and Japan, an Asian power house. In one of the major upsets, Japan beat Germany. During the entire 90 minutes, the supporters of both teams cheered their team and after the match was over the supporters of both teams dispersed and left the stadium.

The only notable difference between the supporters of both teams is that the supporters of Japan left the stadium after entirely cleaning the stand of the stadium from where they were cheering their team. Some national characters indeed which we should emulate as we are lacking in this regard badly.

Dr Ashim Chowdhury,

Guwahati