Mystery virus kills over 1,900 pigs in Assam

Prabin Kalita | TNN | Apr 26, 2020, 08:36 IST

Picture used for representational purpose only

GUWAHATI: Amid the Covid-19 pandemic that has kept the country in lockdown, a mysterious virus has killed over 1,900 pigs in six of its districts over the past few days, prompting the state government to impose a ban on sale of swines and consumption of their meat. The affected areas have been declared as containment zones to check the spread of the virus.
“After we received reports of these unnatural deaths, we sent teams of doctors to each affected district. Samples collected from the dead pigs were processed by the North Eastern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (NERDDL) and Biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory. From the reports, we haven’t been able to identify the actual cause of the deaths. We suspect it could be due to an exotic virus, may be a foreign virus,” agriculture minister Atul Bora said.
The state government on Saturday banned purchase and sale of pigs and pork, closed down all slaughter houses and banned movement of people in contact with pig farms from one place to another, Bora added.
The state government has sent the samples to National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal for confirmation. “After we receive the report from Bhopal, we will take the next step,” said the minister.
He further added, “This is a season for swine flu in Assam and we have vaccinated the animals. Though many pigs are healthy, 1964 have died in Sivasagar, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Biswanath districts.”
In Sivasagar, 1128 pigs have died, 616 in Dhemaji and 107 in Dibrugarh district. The rest have died in the remaining three districts.
“We do not want the disease to spread. So, these six districts have been declared as containment zones and people who are in contact with pigs have been barred from travelling out of their place of stay,” Bora added.