The Livestock Famers’ Association has urged the government to retest pigs at the farm at Kattimoola in Wayanad, from where African swine fever was reported, before culling them .
Speaking to mediapersons on Saturday, K.S. Raveendran, vice president, and M.V. Wilson, district president, said the Animal Husbandry department collected samples from a live animal at the farm six days ago but no pigs died of the disease after that here. Moreover, all the 360 pigs in the farm were consuming feed as usual .
Officials had said they had sent the samples of the live animal and from a carcass of a pig suspected to have died of the disease at Mananthavady to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal. The latter sample was collected much earlier, they claimed.
“The test results were positive but we suspect that the samples might have changed. Hence, the authorities should be ready to retest the animals before culling them,” Mr. Raveendran said.
The association was ready to maintain the farm for the next 15 days with all precautionary measures to clear apprehensions of pig farmers in the district, he said.
Hundreds of farmers were depending on pig farming for their livelihood and rearing more than 15,000 pigs in the district.
The ban to collect feed from other districts, in the wake of the outbreak of the disease, would adversely affect the farming community. Hence, the authorities should ensure the supply of feed in the crisis, they said.
They also demanded stringent steps to control the transportation of pig and pork from other States.
