2. FIRST EMERGENCE OF ASF IN INDIA
An unusual mortality in pigs were reported earlier on January 2020 from
Dhemaji, Biswanath, Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, Jorhat and Dibrugarh districts
of Assam as well as from West Kameng, Papumpare, Lower Siang, Upper
Siang, Lohit, Lepa Rada, East Siang, Namsai and Changlang districts of
Arunachal Pradesh. After scrutiny of the clinical case reports, samples
were tested for Classical Swine Fever (CSF, an endemic disease) at
NERDDL and at College of Veterinary Sciences, Khanapara, Guwahati with
support from ICAR-National Research Centre on Pigs, Rani and ICAR
Research Complex for NEH Region at Barapani. As the preliminary tests of
the tissue samples of pigs from Assam conducted at College of Veterinary
Sciences, Guwahati, indicated African Swine Fever (ASF), samples from
both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh were sent to the OIE reference
laboratory, ICAR-National Institute for High Security Animal Diseases
(NIHSAD), Bhopal, where these samples were tested positive for ASF by
both Real time PCR and nucleotide sequencing.