GUWAHATI
More than 200 goats died of PPR (peste des petits ruminants) or goat plague in two villages of central Mizoram’s Serchhip district over a month, the Bhopal-based National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases confirmed a week ago.
Serchhip was one of five districts of Mizoram where more than 1,000 pigs died of African swine fever (ASF) in March-April 2021. One of these districts was Siaha where several mithuns – semi-wild bovines locally called ‘gayal’ – died due to a localised outbreak of FMD, which expands to foot-and-mouth disease.
In 2015, Forest Department officials reported the death of Himalayan serows, small antelope-like herbivores figuring in the Schedule 1 list of protected species and Mizoram’s State animal. At least 28 of these animals were found dead or too weak to flee from humans, who killed them for meat, a departmental report said.
The “mysterious” deaths of more than two dozen Himalayan serows were later attributed to sarcoptic mange, a skin disease caused by a type of mites.
FMD also struck the Aizawl district’s Durtlang and Siphir villages in July 2012, killing more than 160 cows. This was six years after the central district of Lunglei reported the death of more than 1,000 pigs due to swine fever and countless fowls due to avian influenza.
So, what makes domestic and wild animals in Mizoram vulnerable to fatal diseases?
Infection from across border
According to Mizoram’s Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, the possibility of infected animals coming in or procured from across the long international and interstate borders of the State is a major factor.
Mizoram’s official website says the State shares 722 km of border with Bangladesh and Myanmar, and 495 km of border with Assam, Manipur, and Tripura.
“Meat is part of the diet of most people in Mizoram, but the local production cannot meet the demand. That is why large-scale imports of animals and poultry and (animal) products make the State susceptible to animal and poultry diseases,” M. Zohmingthangi, the department’s deputy director handling animal diseases, said.
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Leaders of Thinglian village, one of the two hit by goat plague, said the infected animals were procured under a local scheme from southern Assam’s Cachar district without being quarantined or checked for any diseases.
Another official, who did not wish to be quoted, said the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department struggled to tackle animal diseases because it had no epidemiologist, and 32 posts of veterinarians had been lying vacant.
“A total of 78 regular and five contractual veterinarians are serving the State with long international and inter-State borders and topographical challenges. There has been no regular appointment of veterinarians for more than three years now,” the official said.
But department’s director Lalrinpuii Sailo said the State had adequate manpower and stock of medicines and vaccines to handle animal diseases. “Everything is under control,” she told The Hindu.
Wolf attacks
Apart from diseases, Mizoram’s villagers have been grappling with wolf attacks. Villagers in Serchhip district’s Sailulak village bordering Myanmar said packs of wolves had killed more than 20 gayals.
Lalramthanga, the chairman of the local association of gayal farmers, said about 50 families in the area have been rearing the animals for their livelihood since 2017. The wolves started attacking in 2020 and have killed more than 135 animals to date.
The State’s Forest officials said they were trying to check the “wolf menace”.
