Unknown illness kills scores of pigs in Ponnagyun Twsp villages

By Admin 21 Aug 2023

DMG Newsroom
21 August 2023, Ponnagyun

Several pigs including piglets have died in some villages in Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township in recent months, according to local residents.

The pigs died within three days after suffering from fever, lack of appetite, diarrhoea and coughing, and at least 20 pigs died in each affected village, according to local residents.

“Eleven of my pigs have died,” said Ko Nyein Soe, a local man from Kuntaung Village. “Many pig deaths have been reported in the village. The pigs are constantly sick and dying, and the infection is very fast.”

Locals said pig deaths have been gradually increasing in Kanchaung Village since June, following Cyclone Mocha’s landfall over Arakan State on May 14.

“My three pigs have died. The veterinarian in the village vaccinated my pigs, but they died. Many pig deaths are reported in the village,” said Daw Khin Than Aye, a local woman from Kanchaung Village.

Prohibitions against selling and consuming pork have been put in place in villages where the pig deaths have occurred.

Dr. Win Oo, director of Arakan State’s Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department, said it is not yet known what is causing the pig deaths in Ponnagyun Township. He said pigs that die of the unidentified ailment should be promptly buried.

“It is best not to eat the meat of infected pigs. … If this disease is not a simple disease but a contagious disease, it can also infect other animals. If your pig dies of disease, it is best to bury it,” he told DMG.

“The pigs that were bred in the village were forced to be taken out of the village, and now they have to be fenced ,” said Daw Oo Myint Yi, a local woman from Deparyone Village in Ponnagyun Township.

“The village administrator told the villagers that if pork was sold in the village, no one would buy or eat it.”

More than 100 pigs died in a handful of villages in the north of Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township in January 2022.