Why Mizoram is often hit by livestock diseases
The Hindu
Goat plague, African swine fever and other diseases plague parts of Mizoram, killing animals such as goats, pigs and mithuns. Dependent on imports for meat, the State has no epidemiologist and 32 posts of veterinarians are lying vacant
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?
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