Classical swine fever has killed over a dozen of pigs in two districts of Meghalaya.
Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, GMRK Marak said the pigs died in different dates in East Khasi Hills district and Ri-Bhoi district over the last couple of months.
A rapid response team has formed a district-level rapid response teams to continuously monitor the situation.
“Six pigs have died in some villages under Mawphlang assembly constituency and another eight pigs in some villages under Umsning assembly constituency,” Marak said.
“From the post mortem reports, it is found that they have died due to the classical swine fever,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Khasi Jaintia Pig Association has decided to stop selling pork for the next two weeks from May 6 in the eastern part of state following the report of African swine fever in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
“We have decided to suspend selling of pork after our meeting with the Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary on Monday on the reported African swine fever and to prevent the outbreak of the diseases,” KJPA president Donlang Kharumnuid said.
Earlier, the Meghalaya government has imposed a ban on import of pigs from outside the state besides banning inter-district transportation of pigs.
The Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department has asked all pig farms, private farms and pig farmers to take adequate measures for strict hygiene and bio-security such as disinfection of the farms, equipments and restricting entry of any outside person into pig farms.
“Signs of high fever in pigs and any abnormal mortality of pigs should be brought to the notice of the authorities,” the department had stated in its order.
“All government pig farms, private pig farms and pig farmers should take adequate measures for strict hygiene and bio-security such as disinfection of the farms, equipment and restricting entry of any outside person into pig farms,” a government notification said.
