Port Blair, Sept 16: As a part of 75th Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration, a hands-on training programme for pig farmers on the topic “Scientific Castration and Mitigation of Iron Deficient Anaemia in Piglets” was organized by Animal Science Division ICAR – Central Island Agricultural Research Institute in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendra (South Andaman) from 7th -11thSeptember, 2021. A total of 19 farmers from different villages (Port Mout, Chouldari, Indira Nagar and Maymyo) of South Andaman participated in the training programme and benefitted. In the inaugural session, Dr. Eaknath B. Chakurkar, Director, ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair stressed on the importance of scientific pig farming for livelihood and nutritional security of farmers of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Moreover, he narrated the scientific way of pig farming including housing, feeding management and management of breeding animals. During the five days training programme, scientists from ICAR-CIARI covered different topics related to profitable pig farming in Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Dr. Arun Kumar De, Scientist& PI, AICRP on Pig highlighted the importance of iron supplementation to piglets in mitigation of iron deficiency anaemia. Dr. Debasis Bhattacharya, Pr. Scientist threw light on different parasitic diseases of pigs and their treatment and prevention.
Dr. Jai Sunder, Pr. Scientist narrated important bacterial and viral diseases of pigs, their diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Dr. P.A. Bala, Sr. Scientist and Dr. T. Sujatha, Sr. Scientist talked on importance of balanced feeding for proper growth management of pigs and role of locally available feed resources in formulation of low cost pig feed. Dr. P. Perumal, Scientist narrated different aspects of reproductive management, selection of elite male and female pigs for breeding purpose and management of nursing piglets.
Dr. Zachariah George, SMS, KVK, South Andaman stressed the role of KVK in popularization of pig farming in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In-house demonstration on scientific castration in piglets and their management were shown to the participants. As part of the programme, to empower the pig farmers, a total of 17 piglets were distributed among the farmers.
This was followed by a field level demonstration on ‘Vaccination against classical swine fever’ and ‘scientific castration of piglets’ at Indiranagar village of South Andaman by a Scientific team including Dr. Debasis Bhattacharya, Dr. Jai Sunder, Dr. Arun Kumar De and Dr. Perumal P. A total of 25 pigs were vaccinated against classical swine fever disease and 2 male piglets were castrated at the farmers’ field.
