Withdraw permission allowing import of pigs, demand NE pig farmers

Dimapur, July 28 (EMN): The North East Progressive Pig Farmers’ Association (NEPPFA) has urged the Union Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries, Giriraj Singh, to withdraw the permission that allows transportation of pigs from Punjab and Haryana to the north-eastern states.

NEPPFA in a letter addressed to the minister on Monday stated that the ICAR-NIHSAD Bhopal on April 29 had confirmed the presence of African Swine Fever (ASF) in samples taken from few locations in the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Following that, the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department (AHVD) had laid down a set of protocols prohibiting the movement of pigs and pork products between the districts of Assam and inter-state among the north-eastern states, it read.

Stating that the decision taken to allow “movement of pigs from the states of Haryana and Punjab to the north-eastern states in the name of food security,” was in a “hurry without considering the holistic picture,” NEPPFA urged the minister to reverse the decision citing various reasons.

“The entire pig industry of India will be at threat if the movement of pigs from Punjab and Haryana to the North Eastern states is allowed at this time. Vehicles transporting the animals on their onward and return journeys will pass through multiple affected areas in Assam. It will have the potential to carry the extremely virulent African Swine Fever virus from Assam to other states of the NE some of which are still ASF-free and hence exposing them to this risk which will lead to same fate of their entire pig population like Assam and Arunachal,” the letter read.

It wrote the speed of ASF spread in Assam was said to be in a decelerating pace until the floods came and lashed a major part of the state. “Floods and rising water tables made proper disposal of infected carcases difficult and presence of ASF in now clinically confirmed in samples taken from 31 locations in the state of Assam. And we suspect that might already have spread into a few other NE states or on the verge of infecting the pig population in the states of Nagaland and Meghalaya. Therefore with opening of pig movement into the effected states, it will certainly transmit to the rest of the country with no time and spread like wild fire and will create a havoc like it did in Assam,” it wrote.

“The pig farmers of NE India have also been facing a severe brunt for the last four months as movement, sale, purchase of livestock for farming as well as meat purpose have been stopped in order to comply with the guidelines issued by government of Assam in order to prevent the spread of this deadly virus and control this situation so that the disease is not spread to other districts and states from these 37 epidemic centres that are notified by the government. In this scenario, we fail to see the rationale behind allowing movement of pigs only from the states of Haryana and Punjab to the north-eastern states,” the letter read.

It went on to state that according to the 20th Livestock Census of India 2019, Haryana has a pig population of over 1 lakh and that for Punjab is about 53,000. The pig population of Assam is the highest in India with 21 lakh and the total pig population of the NE states (excluding Sikkim) is more than 42 lakh, which is nearly half of the pig population of India;  and that the pig population of rest of India, excluding the states of Punjab and Haryana is more than 89 lakh.

“Given this statistics, we are forced to deduce that to satisfy the business interest of a handful of farmers of Punjab and Haryana, the entire pig population of the country has been put at stake,” the pig farmers from Northeast wrote in their letter.

“The seriousness of this disease cannot be undermined since entire pig industry of countries like China and several European and African countries have faced severe loss and the livelihoods of farmers have been wiped out. Given these facts, we, therefore, cannot accept this decision which can bring down a similar catastrophe on our pig industry and doom to pig farmers of the entire nation,” the letter added.