The Wayanad district administration has started culling of pigs at a farm at Kattimoola, near Tavinhal, in the district where two cases of African Swine Fever have been confirmed.
A 10-member team, consisting of veterinarians and two experts in culling from Banglore, started preliminary steps to cull as many as 360 pigs on the farm around 6 p.m. on Sunday. A team of Rapid Response Team consisting of officials of the Animal Husbandry, Police, and Revenue departments are camping in the area to assist the team.
The culling operation would continue at night once it would be started, Wayanad Subcollector R. Srelakshmi, who is coordinating the operation, told The Hindu. They would cull the disease-affected animals after tranquillizing it with an electric stunner, Ms. Srelakshmi said.
“As many as five pits have been made some 50 metres away from the farm to bury the carcasses scientifically. We are trying to get one more electric stunner to expedite the operation,” Ms. Srelakshmi said.
The disease was confirmed four days ago after samples of animals from two pig farms at Kaniyaram, near Mananthavady, and Kattimoola tested positive at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal.
The district administration declared a one-km radius of the disease-affected areas “infection zones” and entry to the zone is restricted. Pigs in the areas would be culled in the coming days and the fodder kept for the animals would be destroyed.
Two to 10-km areas were declared surveillance zones and animals in the areas would be monitored. Compensation would be given to owners of the culled animals as per the guidelines of the Centre and the expenses would be borne by the Central and State governments equally.
