Alarming rise in African swine fever prompts pork sale ban in 7 Assam districts

The department said that 297 epicentres of the disease have been reported this year, with 84 new epicentres being notified in the month of October itself.

“The incidences of the ASF have been alarmingly rising across the state with no bound since January 2025, with 297 epicentres reported, spreading to almost all districts in the state with more concentration in seven districts, namely Dhemaji, Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, Darrang, Jorhat and Dibrugarh, and during the month of October 2025, alone, 84 epicentres were notified in the state,” it said.

The order issued on Sunday has now banned the inter-district movement of live pigs “until further orders” in an attempt to stem further spread. In addition to this, it has banned the sale of pork meat in the seven worst-affected districts.

Dr Jayanta Kumar Goswami, director of the department, told The Indian Express that this year alone, around 14,500 pigs have been culled to prevent further spread of the virus, and over 3,000 pigs have separately died of the disease. In July this year, in response to a question in Lok Sabha, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying S P Singh Baghel had submitted that “during the last five years”, 44,596 pigs had died due to the disease and 8,295 pigs had been culled.

The 20th livestock census of 2019 had enumerated 20.99 lakh pigs in Assam, and the piggery industry is one that has been actively promoted by the state government.

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