Veterinary dept takes up steps to contain African swine fever

GUWAHATI : Following reports of African swine fever may have spread through bordering areas, the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary authorities here have taken preventive steps to control it. 
A video conference was held on Thursday regarding African swine fever which may have spread through bordering areas of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. District Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Officer, Dr.RA Laskar directed the veterinary officer and block veterinary officers to contain the spread of the virus by taking up massive awareness campaigns. Besides awareness programme, the authorities have also upped its ante to prevent entry of pigs through bordering areas of Mizoram and prevent sale of carcasses. Dr.Laskar asked the field officers to collect report on any abortion of pigs. South-east Asia is battling to contain the spread of highly contagious African swine fever, known as “pig Ebola”, which has already led to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam.African swine fever, which is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs, was discovered in China in August, where it has caused havoc, leading to more than 1.2m pigs being culled. There is no vaccination for African swine fever, which causes pigs to internally haemorrhage until they die, so the only option to contain the disease is to kill any contaminated animals. The virus can last for several weeks on anything from clothes to vehicles, allowing for it to easily travel long distances.