One of the three pigs injected with a trial vaccine was missing and apparently butchered for its meat by unsuspecting hands. “Yes, its true that one of the pigs injected with a seed virus brought from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, has been missing. In fact, the miscreants had apparently cut open the animal and taken the meat. We have launched a departmental inquiry into it and also filed a police complaint at the Palode station,” Vijayakumar, director, State Animal Husbandry Department, told Deccan Herald.
The trial was carried out for developing a vaccine for “Swine Fever” (not swine flu) a kind of viral disease which spreads among pigs.
Vijayakumar said two of the three pigs which were also injected with the seed virus were incinerated after 10 days as was the procedure. However, the third pig was under observation when the theft occurred. The institute would now have to procure another animal and repeat the procedure to achieve the desired results.
What the consumption of contaminated meat will invite is anybody’s guess. However, Vijayakumar claimed that consumption of the infected pig was not harmful to the body if it was properly cooked.
The fact that its research material has been looted easily has put the department in a spot and raised questions about past incidents, if any. The incident happened despite the presence of three security personnel to guard the building which houses modern laboratories.