COIMBATORE: Pig farms in Coimbatore have come under the surveillance of the Animal Husbandry Department following an outbreak of the highly contagious African swine flu in neighbouring Kerala.

As a precaution, officials inspected around 19 pig farms located in Pollachi, Thondamuthur, Sulur, Boluvampatti and other areas across the district on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The detection of the disease in Kerala has forced large-scale culling of pigs in large numbers in farms in Wayanad and Kannur. As Coimbatore shares borders with the neighbouring state, a blanket ban has already been enforced on transporting pigs to Kerala.

“More than 18,000 pigs are reared in the 19 farms in the district. Though no case of African swine flu has been detected, samples collected from the farms have been sent for testing as a precaution,” said R Perumalsamy, Regional Joint Director of Department of Animal Husbandry.

The officials have also advised the owners to keep the farms clean and not allow outsiders in their farms. Awareness has been created among the farm owners and they were asked to alert authorities, if pigs exhibit symptoms of this highly contagious disease.

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