Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Secretary Bishnupada Sethi has dispatched a team of experts to Puri district to examine how Japanese Encephalitis, a viral disease seen in pigs, transmitted to humans in the district and provide suggestions for prevention.
Sethi sent the team following Japanese Encephalitis was detected in humans by some Government doctors in Puri recently.
The team led by Phulnakhara-based head ADRI Dr BK Behera visited three villages, Khilla Kanthia, Toranapada and Mulabari under Brahmagiri block, where people rear prigs in large numbers.
Pigs, some wild birds like heron and Culex mosquitoes are the carrier of Japanese Encephalitis.
The team collected serum samples from six healthy pigs and, after Elisa test at IVRI, Bareilly, three samples of them were found to be positive for Japanese Encephalitis.
The disease, though rarely takes lives of adult pigs, yet it impacts reproductive system in them. Chances of abortion and still births are seen in pigs affected with Japanese Encephalitis positive. And if normal births take place, then piglets so born die in a few months.
No vaccine is available till date in India to prevent this disease in pigs.
The disease is transmitted from pigs to humans through mosquito (Culex/Ades species) bites, usually during morning and dusk times. Hence, the disease is spread during the mosquito breeding season.
The team suggested for controlling of mosquito breeding and rearing of pigs at safe distance from human habitations as the best preventive measures to control the outbreak of the disease.