Sabitri Gomba, 70, is an established swine farmer of Hetauda Sub Metropolitan-11, Simaltar. She has been doing this pig farming for the last two decades.
Sabitri, who had started with this business with two to four pigs, had at one time 70 to 90 pigs in her farm, earning around Rs 1million annually.
Now, her business has now suffered a huge loss due to African swine flu. Her swine farms have now been empty, of late.
"Unknown disease! Shuddered before they collapsed to the ground," said Sabitri, "Several pigs weighing more than 3 quintals each died this way. Six sows died during pregnancy."
The unknown disease has led Sabitri to a dilemma on whether to continue with the same business or quit right away.
Sabitri's stoy is only the tip of the iceberg, the entire pig farmers in the district have borne the brunt of the swine fever. Since there is no vaccine and medicine to control this disease, the farmers have suffered a huge a loss.
Palden Gomba, another farmer in the district, has been rearing pigs. Once, he had 35 pigs in the sty. He managed to sell some, many of them died of the flu, according to Gomba.
The pig farming industry in Makwanpur, is currently facing a serious crisis due to the outbreak of African swine flu.
The District Livestock Service Office, Makawanpur, has reported that around 200 pigs have died due to this disease in Makawanpur so far.
According to the latest data, 190 pigs have died of swine flu in Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City and Bhimphedi Rural Municipality of Makawanpur since the last week of November.
After the pig died, samples were sent to the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Tripureshwar, Kathmandu for testing. The results confirmed the presence of the African swine fever virus.
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