Brojen Konwar lost his nine pigs last week.  He is not the only one, as more farmers in his village Amulapatty in Lakhimpur district of Assam have been losing pigs with alarming regularity.

“The pigs stopped eating first, and gradually they died one by one,” 47-year-old Konwar, who has retired from the Indian army and has set up a pig farm, told Gaon Connection.

In Shivsagar district, Assam, in the village of Simaluguri, Indrajit Borgohain is distraught as he lost 53 pigs to African swine fever. 

It’s been over a year now and African swine fever in Assam refuses to die down while the losses of farmers continue to grow manifold. The spread of African swine fever is worrisome in northeast India as thousands of farmers in the region are dependent on pig farming for their livelihood.

Also Read: African swine fever rages on in Assam

“There are many pig farmers in the state who have incurred heavy losses due to the African swine fever,” Timir Bijay Srikumar, secretary, the North East Progressive Pig Farmers Association, told Gaon Connection.  

“Just like the country is hit by the first and second wave of the COVID 19 pandemic, in Assam this is the second wave of swine fever,” he said.

“Some farmers managed to get back on their feet after last year’s swine fever attack. But if it spreads anymore this year, they will never be able to recover from it,” Srikumar warned.

How large is the spread of African swine fever?

The African swine fever is caused by a virus which is named after the disease itself (African swine fever virus [ASFV]) — it is a DNA virus belonging to the Asfarviridae family of viruses. Although the ASFV cannot infect human beings, its outbreak is highly lethal for the pig populations as it has a fatality rate of almost 100 per cent.

Several districts in Assam have confirmed the African swine fever, while others still await confirmation. Meanwhile, in districts such as Lakhimpur, Shivsagar, Dhemaji and Darrang in Assam, this month, many pigs have died.

Also Read: Explained: African Swine Fever, world’s biggest animal disease outbreak; India affected too

There has been some delay in the administration in dealing with the swine fever, Srikumar added. “Only some districts have reported the African swine fever. The rest are yet to receive the test reports. The government should really do something about this and expedite matters,” he said.

“Baksa, Daarang and Shivsagar districts have tested positive for the African swine fever,” Indira Kalita, director, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, Assam, told Gaon Connection. Several other pigs near the farm where pigs had died in Darrang, were also culled, she added, but said the department did not yet have the total number of pigs that were culled.

Meanwhile, Konwar is worried. He already lost nine pigs last week. And only recently bought three pigs that cost him nearly a lakh. “Two of them have given birth to a litter of piglets, and one more sow will give birth next month,” Konwar said. “The animal husbandry department came to collect samples but I am yet to get any report from them,” said the very worried farmer.

The nightmare of 2020

Pig farmers have not forgotten the nightmare of last year, in January and February 2020, when the African swine fever swept through pig farms killing the animals. It had left many pig farms empty and forced many people to discontinue pig farming. 

Also Read: World Zoonoses Day 2021: Here’s all you need to know

By April, 2020, in the districts of Lakhimpur, Shivsagar, Dhemaji, Biswanath Chariali, Dibrugarh and Jorhat, thousands of pigs were infected and according to official reports, 18,200 pigs died. However, the North East Progressive Pig Farmers Association claimed that the number was far greater and pegged it at more than one million in Assam alone.

Many pig farms that closed down last year are yet to recover and resume pig farming. The remaining pig farmers say they are scared because another bout of African swine fever will wipe out their livelihood altogether.

“We do not know yet how or why the African swine fever has afflicted Assam. Maybe it has made its way from Mizoram,” Kalita said.  But, there is a move to spread awareness about swine fever. “The losses are so much because there is no vaccine yet to counter the African swine fever,” she added.

Also Read: Now African swine fever in Mizoram; more than 5000 pigs dead

This year, Mizoram has been severely affected by African swine fever. According to the state’s animal husbandry department, the first death due to African swine fever was on March 21. After that, the swine fever had spread rapidly, claiming the lives of more than 10,000 pigs.

According to the 20th animal census in 2018, while the rest of the country recorded a decline in the number of pigs, it was Assam that showed an increase. The 19th animal census in 2012 recorded the number of pigs in the country at 10.3 million which came down to 9.1 million in the 20th animal census. However, in Assam, the number of pigs went up from 1.64 million to 2.10 million.

With the African swine fever wreaking havoc, the numbers are all set to topple. 

Culling and compensation

When the pigs are culled in order to stem the infection from spreading, the farmers are to be given compensation that is shared by the state and central government. 

The central government has fixed the compensation according to the weight of the culled pig. If a culled pig weighed up to 15 kgs, the farmer received a compensation of Rs 2,200; for a pig that weighed between 15 and 40 kgs the farmer received Rs 5,800; the pig that weighed between 40 kgs and 70, gave the farmer a compensation of Rs 8,400 and a culled pig that weighed between 70 kgs and 100 kgs would get the farmer a compensation of Rs 12,000.

In the past few years, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, pigs across several countries have fallen prey to the African swine fever. These include countries such as Mongolia, China, Republic of Korea, Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. 

Read the story in Hindi.