African swine fever has spread in two villages of Kottayam district of Kerala.
Key points:
African swine fever outbreak was found in two pig farms located in Koottickal and Vazhur Gram Panchayats of Kottayam district of Kerala.
Kottayam District Collector John V Samuel has ordered the killing of pigs of the affected farm.
As per the guidelines of the Central Government, all pigs will be killed in the affected farm and within a radius of one kilometer.
Their disposal will also be done according to the prescribed standards.
The District Animal Husbandry Officer has been entrusted with the task of overseeing this process.
The district administration has declared a radius of one kilometer of the affected farm as the infected area and a radius of 10 kilometers as the surveillance area.
African swine fever has also spread in Mizoram:
Earlier in September this year, news of the spread of African swine fever in Mizoram had come to light.
More than 57,000 pigs died due to the outbreak of swine fever in Mizoram.
While the administration decided to kill more than 43,000 pigs.
The state government of Mizoram had declared it a 'state disaster'.
Due to the effect of African swine flu in Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim, the government had banned people from consuming pork.
African Swine Fever:
This is a fatal infection that affects domestic and wild pigs.
The mortality rate of this disease is 100%, which means that no pig survives if infected by it.
The only treatment for this disease is to kill the infected animals so that it does not spread to other animals.
It spreads from one animal to another through touch or body fluid.
Feeding raw food to pigs can also spread the virus.
African swine fever does not affect humans in any way
There is no threat to human health. Even if they come in contact with an infected pig or eat pork products.
It was first found in Africa in the year 1920.
In India, it was first confirmed in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in February-March 2020