GUWAHATI: There is no letup in the retrieval of pig carcasses from river Brahmaputra in the wake of an outbreak of African swine fever (AFS) in Assam and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh.
Over the past four days, 28 carcasses were fished out of the river at the Kaziranga National Park and disposed of. The river flows through the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The park’s Field Director P Sivakumar said a major worry was the possible contamination of the river water. The Brahmaputra is a source of drinking water for people as well as domestic animals.
The deaths of nearly 2,500 domestic pigs from AFS have alarmed the state government. The state’s Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Department, however, claimed the deaths were on the decline.
“The cases are decreasing. We have guided our officers on what they need to do contain the disease,” the department’s Director Dr. Pulin Chandra Das told this newspaper.
Some deaths were also reported from two districts of Arunachal. “The carcasses came floating on the Brahmaputra. We don’t know if these pigs died in Assam or elsewhere,” Das added.
This is for the first time that AFS has been reported in India.