Cases of African swine fever were reported at a private farm in Kottayam, Kerala. The local administration has declared the area of one kilometer around the pig farm as infected
Months after being detected in India for the first time, African swine fever was reported in a private farm at Meenachil Panchayat in Kerala’s Kottayam district, officials told PTI on Thursday.
District collector Dr. P K Jayasree assured of taking precautionary measures to prevent the spread of African swine disease. The collector, who is also the chairperson of the district disaster management authority, has ordered to cull and bury all the infected pigs on the farm. All the pigs will be culled and buried in farms where infection cases have been reported. Around 48 pigs have been culled and buried till now, an official told PTI.
A government release informed that an area of one kilometer around the pig farm where the disease has been confirmed has been declared as infected. In addition to that, the area falling under a radius of ten kilometers is announced as a disease surveillance zone.
To curb any further spread of the virus among animals, several measures have been taken by the local administration. Shops selling pork meat have been shut in the affected area, and transportation of pigs has been halted for time being. The fever that was detected in Africa for the first time in the 1920s, was reported from some farms in Wayanad and Kannur districts a few months ago.
The disease is highly contagious and may lead to the death of the infected animal. It can cause an acute form of hemorrhagic fever in domestic and wild pigs. Earlier, the virus was limited to African countries and parts of Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. However, the disease began to expand its presence to other parts of the world. Since 2007, the disease has been reported in multiple countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe in domestic as well as wild pigs.
It is worth noting that the disease has no cure leaving no option other than culling and burying the animals. With this, the disease has a mortality rate of 90-95%. Even though the disease is highly contagious it is not a threat to humans as it can not be transmitted from animals to humans. The disease can only spread from one animal to another.
Source: Livemint