A CORRESPONDENT
BISWANATH CHARIALI: African swine fever has been reportedly detected in a good number of pigs in a private farm in the Pratapgarh area in the Biswanath district.
After receiving this information the veterinary department in the area is continuing efforts to prevent spread of the disease to other pigs. Some pigs reared in the slum areas of Pratapgarh have already died. African swine fever is feared to have spread to the nearby farms from these pigs reared in exposed conditions.
Meanwhile, Pratapgarlh Tea Estate Purana Basti Line and other five villages within a one-kilometer radius around the epicenter have been declared as Infected Zone, and Baludonga and other 59 villages falling under a 10-kilometer radius of the infected area have been declared as Containment Zone in a bid to stop the virus from spreading to nearby areas.
District Magistrate of Biwanath Munindra Nath Ngatey promulgated the prohibitory order exercising his power conferred under 'Prevention and Control of Infection and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act, 2009' with immediate effect. The order stated that no live pig or pig feed or pork and pork products would be allowed to be taken out of or brought into the zone, no carrier of goods or animals would carry any animals from or out of the infected zone, no person is allowed to take out any pig alive or dead which is infected or suspected to be infected with African Swine Fever, no person is allowed to carry any pig feed or other materials – namely, carcass, skin or other parts or products - of such animal which has come in contact with any animal infected or suspected to be infected from ASF and no person, organization or institution shall hold any animal market or exhibition and carry on any activity which involves grouping or gathering of pigs within the zone, etc.
However, carriage of animals (pigs) by roadways or railways through the declared infected zone is allowed, so long as the animal is not unloaded in any place within the zone till the issuance of sanitization certificate by the competent Veterinary authority. The order will remain in force until further order and any violation of this order will invite penal action as per law, an official press release stated on Monday.
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