2 more suspected cases of African swine fever reported

Quarantine officials head to a pig farm in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, where a suspected case of African swine fever was reported, Friday. Another farm in the city also reported a suspected case on the same day. Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

Two more suspected cases of African swine fever (ASF) were reported Friday, raising concerns among the quarantine authorities that the deadly virus has spread after the two previously confirmed cases.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, two farms in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, reported the deaths of three pigs (two and one) early in the morning.

The reports came three days after the nation's first outbreak was reported in another farm in the same inter-Korean border town, and two days after the second case in Yeoncheon, a Gyeonggi provincial county.

The two farms with suspected cases are located 9 and 7.4 kilometers away from the Yeoncheon farm. One of them has around 3,000 pigs and the other, 4,200.

The quarantine authorities have been conducting inspections of 544 farms located within a 10-kilometer radius of the infected farms in Paju and Yeoncheon. Pigs at 56 farms of the 544 tested negative and tests at the remaining farms are underway.

The ministry has slaughtered 10,372 pigs within a 3-kilometer radius of the infected farms as a part of quarantine efforts. Six municipalities in Gyeonggi Province ― Paju, Yeoncheon, Dongducheon, Pocheon, Cheorwon and Gimpo ― have been designated as "tight control zones."

ASF is not harmful to people, but it is fatal and highly contagious among pigs. No vaccines or cure are currently available. The disease is spread by leftover feed or by direct contact with people and wild animals carrying the virus.

The agriculture ministry is also monitoring the movements of Typhoon Tapah, which is expected to affect the country over the weekend, out of concern that heavy rain could possibly carry the virus from the infected sites where culled pigs are buried.

"We are conducting a study on the typhoon's effect on the quarantine work. Apart from that, disinfectant work is also being carried out strictly to prevent contamination," an agriculture ministry official said.

The authorities still have no clue how the disease arrived in South Korea, because the affected farms did not have any vectors such as using leftover food, contact with wild boars or farm staff visiting affected countries.

There are suspicions that the virus was transmitted from North Korea which reported its first case of AFS in late May. The authorities are looking into the possibility that the virus was spread via waters of the Imjin River, which flows from the North to the South toward the Han River, with the river being swollen from typhoons this summer.

"We collected two water samples from a stream near the farms but they tested negative," an environment ministry official said. "We'll collect samples from the junction of the Imjin and the Han rivers and examine them over the next few months.

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