India: Mizos shun pork as 1,000 pigs hit by swine flue

Aizawl, Aug 09 : Many families in Mizoram were saying no to pork in their Sunday morning meals since 1,000 pigs have died of swine flu so far.


Official sources here today said there had been no report of swine flu in human beings so far, adding the dead pigs were confined to the districts of Lawngtlai and Lunglei bordering Myanmar and Kolasib district bordering Assam.

State Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Director Dr C Sangnghina said swine fever had been spreading by pigs imported from Myanmar with which Mizoram shares 404-km porous border.

In the past two months, 774 pigs died in 34 villages of south Mizoram's Lunglei district, while over 200 died in Lawngtlai district and 100 others in Mizoram-Assam border Kolasib district, official sources said.

Meanwhile, sales of pork, the delicacy on the Mizo menu, continues to drop.

''Since people were afraid of eating pork, our sales have been badly affected by the swine flu, swine fever, or whatever. I have shifted to selling beef,'' a meat seller at Chanmari here said on yesterday.

Normally on Saturdays, pork shops were overcrowded with women and men carrying baskets for a grand Sunday breakfast. But such queues have now shifted to beef counters.

Meanwhile, the department has taken every precautionary measure to prevent the state from a possible outbreak of swine flu after the disease had been detected in neighbouring Manipur.

Dr C Sangnghina said check posts in Mizoram-Manipur border village and other areas on the border were on high alert and ban on import of pigs had been clamped.

The state department officials also said a close watch had been maintained on the both incoming and outgoing people at Lengpui Airport, the state’s lone airport.

''We are yet to identify any infection in Mizoram and trying our best to ensure that the state was safe from the H1N1 virus,'' Sangnghina said.
--- UNI