By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: There is severe concern among officials of the State Veterinary Department over the high mortality rate of pigs in the State leading to fear of an outbreak of swine flu due to shortage of swine flu vaccines in Meghalaya.
Talking to media persons here on Friday, Principal Secretary in charge Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department, P Naik, admitted that there is a shortage of vaccination for swine flu in the State.
“At present there is a gap between the demand and supply of vaccination in the State,” Naik said.
According to Naik, the State requires around 3 lakh doses of vaccination for combating swine flu every year but the State is getting only 1.30 lakh dose each year.
The State has a stock of 45,000 doses, he added.
He, however, expressed hope that the quantity of doses would increase from this year as the Assam Agriculture University is set to supply vaccination doses to the State.
Earlier Meghalaya was getting the vaccinations from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that there were some reports of swine flu outbreak in private piggery farms this year even though no such cases were reported from any of the eleven government piggery farms in the State.
Naik also informed that the annual consumption of pork in the State is around 23,000 metric tonnes while consumption of beef is around 39,000 metric tonnes.
Although sixty per cent of the pigs are brought from outside the State while the rest are reared here, he informed.
The State has a total number of 30 lakh poultry, 5 lakh pigs and 8 lakh cattle.