Following suspected cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks in pigs in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and some northeastern states, the health department has sounded an alert in the district.
The department has asked its team to keep an eye on unauthorized movement of pigs, pig meat, pig-meat products in and out of the district.
Pig rearing farmers have also been asked to alert authorities if they notice sudden deaths among their stock. The health officials informed that ASF does not infect or spread to humans but it's deadly and highly contagious among pigs. However, earlier cases of swine flu had spread panic in the district.
An official said so far no case of ASF has been reported in the state or neighbouring states. "We have been asked to take precaution. Cases of Covid-19 and Swine flu had put a lot of pressure on the health team.  We have issued orders to keep checkpoints under stringent checks for unauthorised transport of pigs, pig meat and other related products," he said.
The department has directed farmers to immediately alert the nearest veterinary hospitals about unnatural deaths of animals in the farms.
“ Precautionary steps are a must to beat fever. The health department should organise a series of workshops to train family doctors and paramedic staff throughout the state to prepare for such an occurrence. Private hospitals should be asked to reserve a certain percentage of beds to admit H1N1 patients and ventilators should be supplied on priority basis to all district hospitals. The government should ensure that sufficient stock of drugs is made available to all medical shops and hospitals,” said Manish Das, a social worker.
ASF is a highly-infectious and contagious hemorrhagic viral disease of pigs, wild boar/feral pigs and other pig species of all breeds and ages. Mortality rate is as high as 100%. ASF does not infect humans or other livestock species. It is caused by a DNA virus of the Asfarviridae family, genus Asfivirus.
The incubation period varies from 4 to 19 days. In India, ASF was confirmed initially in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam during June 2020 and then in Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Manipur.
“We have sent alerts to all our surveillance officers across districts today to inform all private and state-owned hospitals to immediately inform about any suspected swine flu cases so that throat swab samples can be collected and sent at the earliest for early confirmation. We have also asked all the officials to ensure that Tamiflu (medicine prescribed to control severity of swine flu) is in adequate amounts at all district hospitals,” said the official.