African swine fever: 16 pigs culled in Vellore
“Lab results received some days ago confirmed that the animals have been infected with African swine fever, for which there is no known cure and hence they have to be culled,” a source informed.
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VELLORE: Two sows (grown up female pig) and 14 piglets infected with African swine fever were culled by a joint team of forest, animal husbandry and revenue officials in a village near Anaicut on Tuesday.
Sources said that Arumugam (45) of Oonai O Pallathur near Anaicut, rearing white pigs for over 3 years, had found that 15 of the 40 animals in his farm died mysteriously over the course of two months. Alarmed by the incident, he approached the Anaicut Veterinary hospital from where a team inspected his farm and sent samples taken from animals from the farm to a lab in New Delhi.
“Lab results received some days ago confirmed that the animals have been infected with African swine fever, for which there is no known cure and hence they have to be culled,” a source informed.
Even though it doesn’t pose risk to humans they have to be culled to protect it from spreading among the swine population, officials said. “The only solution is to cull the animals,” sources said.
A drug was injected on each animal according to their weight and size for a ‘painless’ death.
ities then safely buried the infected pigs in a pit dug up in Arumugam’s farm. Arumugam has appealed to the state government to compensate him as he lost Rs 3 lakh with the culling of 16 animals.