By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Amidst the corona epidemic, the havoc of African swine flu in Assam is not taking its name. Over 14,000 pigs have died in Assam in the last few days due to the infection of African swine flu.The Assam government said this morning that the first case of African swine flu has been detected in the state and more than 14,700 pigs have been killed in 416 villages. Assam’s Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Minister Atul Bora, “National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) Bhopal has confirmed that it is African Swine Flu (ASF). The central government has told us that this is the first case of the disease in the country. ” He said that according to the calculations of 2019 by the department, the total number of pigs was around 21 lakh but now it has increased to about 30 lakh.The spokesman of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department said that the infection is spreading very fast. The disease has spread to nine districts in Assam causing pigs to die in these areas. The disease has severely damaged livelihoods of cattle farmers. According to officials, the infection has spread from six districts of Assam to three more districts Majuli, Golaghat and Kamrup Metropolitan. A total of 14,7013 pigs have died in Assam in the last few days due to African swine fever (AFS).The disease was first reported in Assam in February this year. Initially, the disease spread in six districts of the state Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Biswanath, but now it has spread to three more districts. This virus is so dangerous that the death rate of pigs infected with it is 100 percent. Assam claims that the virus came from China just like the Novel Corona virus.Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the Department of Veterinary and Forests to work with the National Pig Research Center of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to create a comprehensive roadmap to save the state’s pigs from African swine fever. Animal Husbandry Minister Bora said, the situation is “worrying”. The state has decided that it will not kill infected pigs but “impose biosafety measures that are consistent with the lockdown.Amidst the outbreak of this new disease in Assam, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Minister Atul Bora visited Kaziranga National Park today. During this, he inquired about the steps taken to save wild boars from this deadly disease. A six-foot deep and two-kilometer-long canal has been dug in the Agoratoli range to protect wild pigs so that wild pigs can return to nearby villages so that they cannot contact domestic pigs.Atul Bora said that the central government has also been informed about the current situation. At present, the Assam government has decided not to kill the pigs immediately. Not only this, the emphasis is on trying alternative measures to prevent the spread of the disease.