#thread #africanswinefever #assam
#pithubarfarms
@ATULBORA2 @sarbanandsonwal
I am sharing this info with extreme pain and sadness – Our farm @Pithubar_Farms got hit by the african swine fever virus and 95% percent of our stock, i.e. 280 animals have died in the past month.

We will lose the remaining animals as well. It has certainly been the most difficult time for us to helplessly witness our animals die everyday and click pictures for “evidence” for our Animal Husbandry department and send a report of their deaths and burial.

While all our animals are and were vaccinated against Classical Swine Fever, FMD and Circo virus – the one virus we could not protect our farm from was the deadly African Swine Fever, which does not have a vaccine yet. The virus got into our farm through birds.

Livestock business is an ongoing process for all the days in a year. Animals are not machines and a farm is not a factory where in we can decide to close it down for a few days, weeks or months. They are dependent on us to be fed and medicated.

Although we were maintaining strict bio security measures in our farm yet on August 7th, 2020 one of our animals showed signs of illness and the symptoms were very much relatable to African Swine Fever.
@ATULBORA2 @sarbanandsonwal

Following a few days some more animals showed symptoms and so they were prescribed an antibiotic course by our resident veterinary officer. The medications did not serve any purpose as the mortality rate for African Swine Fever in acute cases is 90% to 100%. @ATULBORA2

Since the lockdown it had been very tough running our farm since we could not sell our animals at an initial stage. Our farm had become over populated. The lockdown paralyzed not only us but all the large scale commercial pig farmers across Assam.

The Govt then banned the sale of pork and transport of animals due to the #ASF epidemic that had killed lakhs of pigs across Assam during the Lockdown. We had a huge fund crunch. We ended up taking more loans from banks on top of our previous bank loans for operational purpose.

Ours is a commercial farm that has lost 280 animals and still counting - much like #BidarvaRajkhowa da's farm in #Lakhimur that lost over 300 animals and Rajib Boraha da's farm in #Gohpur that lost over 200 animals. The losses are almost irrecoverable.