Over 250 pigs are going to be culled starting from Tuesday at two pig farms in Kanichar panchayat of Kannur district in Kerala to prevent the spread of African swine fever which was detected there, district officials said.
Kannur district officials said the Collector on Monday ordered culling and burying of 273 pigs in two farms -- one the epicentre and the other within one kilometre radius of the first -- to prevent spread of the disease.
Besides that, pig farms within a 10 kilometre radius will also be monitored, the officials said in a release. Barely a week after over 300 pigs were culled in Wayanad district of Kerala to prevent the outbreak of African swine fever detected there, new cases of the disease have been reported from there as well as from Kannur.
One case each of the disease has been reported from Wayanad and Kannur, the respective district officials said earlier in the day. The District Collector's office in Kannur told PTI in the morning that a meeting in connection with the reporting of the disease was scheduled later in the day by the Collector.
Later in the day, a release issued by the district authorities said the Collector, in the meeting, directed all the departments to provide all necessary assistance to the rapid response teams formed to deal with the disease.
The release also said an order has been issued to restrict import or transport of pigs, their meat or related products and pig manure to and from Kerala to other states for a period of 30 days from August 1 and the southern state has also been declared as a restricted zone.
Police and Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) will be conducting surveillance in the border areas, it said. The latest incident of African swine fever in Wayanad has been reported in Nenmeni village of the district on Monday. The new case has made the Animal Husbandry department sound an alert in the district.
The Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry in Wayanad, Dr Rajesh, told PTI that 193 pigs in and around the Nenmeni farm in Sultan Bathery will have to be culled this week to prevent the disease from spreading.
There are over 20,000 pigs spread in 222 pig farms in Wayanad alone. Samples will be collected from these farms as part of surveillance, he said. Kerala had in July tightened biosecurity measures following an alert from the Centre that African swine fever had been reported in Bihar and a few northeastern states.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), African swine fever is a highly contagious and fatal viral disease of domestic pigs. It was first detected in Kenya, East Africa, in 1921 as a disease that killed settlers' pigs. Contact with warthogs was proven to be an important factor in transmission of the virus.
(With PTI inputs)
