Calling corporators’ demand of slaughtering pigs in the city ‘unfounded’, the medical experts, animal activists and the BMC’s health officials have called for a scientific way to deal with the situation.

“Such a demand is absolutely unfounded. Indian pigs have not even caught the virus, so what is the point in slaughtering them? Also, in the city, pigs are hardly used for major commercial or domestic purposes. Pork too is not consumed in much quantity here. So, unless we have a major epidemic kind of situation, we need not fear,” said Dr Nanda Shimpi, senior vice-president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

On Tuesday, IMA doctors had a special meeting with the BMC health officials on how to scientifically deal with the virus. “Swine flu spreads from one person to another through the air, why slaughter pigs. We need to increase our vigil on tourists coming from places like Mexico where the flu has its origins,” said Dr Anil Pachnekar, President of IMA, Mumbai. According to Dr Pachnekar, the need of the hour is to have stricter vigil and not panic. “Anti-virals like Tamiflu are available in the city. People coming from vulnerable areas should have this anti-viral for a period of 15 days. In any case, there have been no proper cases detected so far,” Dr Pachnekar added.

The opinion of medical experts is also echoed by animal activists in the city, who say that World Health Organisation (WHO) too opposes such an action of slaughtering pigs. “WHO has categorically stated that the virus H1N1 cannot be transmitted to humans from pigs so why slaughter them? There is another disease called swine fever which is also only transmitted from one pig to another. So people in the city need not fear catching the virus from pigs directly,” said Dr J C Khanna, secretary of The Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA).

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