Central team takes stock of ASF containment measures
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 11 2023:
A team of Central veterinarians has inspected the containment measures of African Swine Fever (ASF) being taken up in Manipur.
Speaking to the media at his office at Sanjenthong today, Joint Director of Manipur Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Services Dr RK Khogendrajit said that the Central veterinary expert team include Joint Commissioner Dr Vijay Kumar Teotia; Head of ICAR, Meghalaya Dr Sandeep Ghatak; Head of ERC, ICAR-IVRI Dr Arnab and another expert from NERDDL.
He continued that the Central team started supervising the containment mea-sures being taken up by the department from November 8 onwards and also went to several epicentres of ASF.
Saying that the department has detected cases of ASF from 29 rearing sites after the first case of the swine disease was confirmed on October 13, he added that ASF is a highly contagious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs, whose mortality rate can reach 100 per cent.
No vaccine has been developed for ASF as of yet, he added.
Dr Khogendrajit maintained that they have been working to contain ASF by following the guidelines of the National Action Plan.
Continuing that the department has constituted 69 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and they have been carrying out culling and other containment exercise, he elaborated that Imphal West has 20 RRTs, Imphal East (9), Thoubal (19), Bishnupur (6), Kakching (8), Ukhrul (3), and Kamjong (2) .
He went on to state that the department has declared 29 pig rearing sites as epicentres of ASF.
Maintaining that the figure of culled pigs, on the other hand, stands at 1617, Dr Khogendrajit said that department also destroyed the feeds and utensils used in pig rearing from the epicentres during the containment exercise.
The department has so far destroyed 13,634 Kgs of pig feeds from ASF infected zones so far, he said while thanking the progressive pig farmers for giving proactive response during the containment exercise.
Saying that the department has also opened a control room for ASF, Dr Khogendrajit claimed that the staff of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry has been working even on holidays to control the ASF outbreak.