Unknown disease killing pigs in several Mrauk-U Twsp villages

12 Jan 2023

DMG Newsroom
12 January 2023, Mrauk-U

More than 100 pigs including piglets have died in some villages in the north of Arakan State’s Mrauk-Township since last month, according to local residents.

Swineherd U Maung Maung Hlaing from Tein Nyo Village said: “All 11 of my pigs have died. At first, one pig got sick, and others were infected and died one after another. I dumped their bodies in the creek, perhaps pigs in other places got infected because of that.”

DMG has received reports that some 30 pigs have died so far in Tein Nyo Village; 19 in Shwe Kyin Pyin Village; 30 in Okkan Village; 20 in Taung Myint Village; and 10 in Seemaung Village. Other villages in the area have also reported pig deaths.

The illness has manifested itself in pigs with symptoms including refusal to eat, cough, fever, and faecal and urinary retention. Pigs have typically died within one week of symptoms developing, according to pig farmers.

“Some died within one day after symptoms developed, but none of them survived more than a week,” said U Maung Tun Win, a resident of Taung Myint Village. “They started to shiver for a few seconds before they died. We don’t know what the disease is.”

Local residents have not yet reported the spate of pig deaths to authorities, however.

“We haven’t yet heard about those cases,” said Dr. Aung Kyaw, assistant director of the Mrauk-U District Livestock and Veterinary Department. “But we don’t think it is swine flu. We have yet to examine.”

The stakes are particularly high for some families who spent much of their savings on pigs in hopes of selling them for profit.

“My two pigs, each weighing around 40 viss, have died. They are worth around 1.5 million kyats,” said Daw Ma Pu Sein from Okkan Village. “We had fed them with the little money we earned. It is a shame that they have died.”

In late 2021 and early 2022, there were also mass pig deaths reported in some Arakan State townships, with the cause of death unclear.