African Swine Fever confirmed in Patiala’s Bandugar & Fatehgarh Sahib’s Mandofal village
Earlier, African Swine Fever was found in Bilaspur, Sanauri Adda and Manjal Khurd areas of Patiala. The whole state of Punjab had already been declared as “controlled area” and a ban on inter-district and inter-state movement of any pig or its belongings has been imposed.
Punjab government has declared the Bandugar area of Patiala city and Mandofal village of Fatehgarh Sahib as African Swine Fever (ASF)-affected zones and notified these as containment zones.
Animal husbandry, fisheries & dairy development minister Laljit Singh Bhullar said on Friday that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National High Security Animal Disease Institute, Bhopal, has confirmed ASF in samples collected from these areas.
“For the prevention of the disease in these areas, restrictions under the provisions of The Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act, 2009 and the National Action Plan for Control, Containment and Eradication of African Swine Fever (June 2020) have been imposed,” said the minister, instructing the officials to keep a close eye on the situation.
The cabinet minister said that area up to 1 kilometre at the two locations have been declared as epicentres and would be considered as “infected zones” while 0 to 10km (9km) area is classified as “surveillance zones”.
“No live/dead pig, including feral or wild pigs, unprocessed pig meat, feed or any material/goods from the piggery farms or backyard piggery shall be taken out of or brought into the infected zone and no person shall bring or attempt to bring into the market any pig or pig products known to be infected with the scheduled disease,” said the minister quoting the National Action Plan.
Earlier, ASF was found in Bilaspur, Sanauri Adda and Manjal Khurd areas of Patiala. The whole state of Punjab had already been declared as “controlled area” and a ban on inter-district and inter-state movement of any pig or its belongings has been imposed.
Urging pig farmers to cooperate with the government for preventing the disease, the cabinet minister said they should not visit other farms, places or districts and should prepare feed for the swine on their farm. Apart from this, pig traders and their vehicles should also be restricted from visiting their farms. This is an incurable and fatal disease which can be prevented only by adopting precautions, he added.