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The animal husbandry department of the Kerala government started the process of culling pigs affected by African swine fever in the Wayanad district. Photo: Bloomberg
How the ASF virus jumped from the north and northeast of India to Kerala is uncertain.
This came after the sudden spread of the dis- ease from the northeast of the country to other states.
Around 2800 pigs have died, including 746 culls.
ASF threat to pork production
n Update on global African swine fever situation
IN India, confirmation of African swine fever in Kerala brings the number of the nation’s states with cases in pigs so far this year to nine.
the Kerala government has announced it will buy all healthy pigs in the state at market prices.
output was 295,000 metric tons.
have been mounting in the Philippines Zamboanga city region.
Kerala in the southwest of the country is the latest Indian state to confirm cases of ASF.
Through the state-owned Meat Products of India, the animals will be slaugh- tered.
In India, both the produc- tion and consumption of pork have been rising in recent years.
Pork is not widely con- sumed in India, but the sector is warned about the potential devastation caused by the disease.
To ensure there is no risk of transmitting ASF further, the meat will be further processed and ex- ported.
Recently, an ASF alert was put in place in Maha- rashtra.
Up to that time, more than 730 herds had been infected since the first cases were confirmed two months previously.
In early 2020, India’s first outbreaks were de- tected in the northeastern state of Assam.
According to a source, it may have been carried on the clothes or footwear of farm workers from other states seeking employment in the state.
Maharashtra is in western India.
New outbreaks in Nepal
Authorities have been conducting an aware- ness campaign in the city, where ASF cases have oc- curred in 15 of its 98 com- munities.
Most of this was in the northeast of the country.
In mid-August, the city authorities were preparing to declare an ASF ca- lamity status in the region of the northwestern part oftheislandofMindanao.
Since then, the disease has been reported sporadi- cally there and other states in that part of the country.
Warning of disease threat to India’s pig in- dustry
Since Nepal registered its first ever cases of ASF in March, the number of confirmed outbreaks has risen to 16.
Elsewhere in the Phil- ippines, increased border controls are on live pigs and pork products.
In recent weeks, ASF spread out of the far north- east in a westerly direction to Bihar and Uttarakhand.
Recently, a report warned that ASF could be about to hit the whole Indian pork sector.
This is according to no- tifications to the World Organisation for Animal Health.
ASF resolved in Rus- sia’s Ural District
The latest detection of the ASF virus in the far southwest of India is a sig- nificant development.
According to the report, northeastern states are struggling to bring the dis- ease under control.
Latest to be affected were two premises described as ‘farms’ in the official re- port.
This month, Russia’s veterinary authority of- ficially declared ASF re- solved in two regions in its Ural Federal District.
In mid-August, cases were confirmed at two farms in the Wayanad dis- trict.
Though ASF is not a threat to human health, it can devastate pig produc- tion as there is neither vac- cine nor treatment.
In late June, the disease was confirmed after 34 out of 46 pigs died in Koshi zone.
This is according to no- tifications to WOAH.
About 300 pigs at the second farm were destined to be culled.
In mid-July, around one- quarter of the 800 animals died at a farm in Narayani.
During September and October 2021, presence of the virus was detected at three locations in Chely- abinsk Oblast.
With the district the centre for pork produc- tion in Kerala, pig farmers and slaughterhouses have experienced extreme pres- sure since the confirma- tion of the disease.
Increasingly, union and state governments are en- forcing strict controls over the movements of live pigs and their products, in- cluding pork.
These zones are in the eastern and central regions of the country respectively, where previous ASF cases have been confirmed.
Affected were a total of 818 domestic pigs.
Prices for live animals and pork products have dropped sharply.
While pork is one of the most popular meats worldwide, it accounts for only 1.7 percent of India’s overall meat production.
So far, 6500 pigs have been directly involved in ASF outbreaks in Nepal. Philippines city prepares for ASF disaster decla- ration
Meanwhile, in Khanty- Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the disease hit a small backyard pig herd in May.
There are around 240 pig farms in Wayanad.
Since the middle of July, losses of pigs from ASF
No further cases have been reported since that
To support the sector,
In 2022, the country’s
time.
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Page 16 – Australian Pork Newspaper, September 2022
www.porknews.com.au
