Army-Air Force joint live-fire exercise: Multiple-rocket launchers fire at a range in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, as South Korea’s Army and Air Force held their largest-ever joint livefire exercise. North Korea didn’t respond to the drill. / Korea Times photo by Hong In-kie |
By Lee Hyo-sik
The government said Thursday it will start vaccinating animals Saturday in five areas where a number of farms have been hit by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
The regions are Andong and Yecheon in North Gyeongsang Province, and Yeoncheon, Paju and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province.
All livestock on farms in Andong where the first outbreak was confirmed on Nov. 29 will be vaccinated, with about 133,000 animals at 7,000 farms within a 10-kilomter-radius of infected farms in four other municipalities to also be given vaccines.
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the slaughter-and-burial method will be deployed for other regions.
“We will mobilize 200 teams, each made up of four personnel, including civil servants and veterinarians, to give shots to animals in five municipalities. We would like to finish the first wave of vaccinations within 10 days,” a ministry official said.
He said vaccinations will only be given to cattle because they are more vulnerable to the disease, while pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals will be excluded. The second vaccinations will be given one month later.
Since the first outbreak was confirmed on Nov. 29, the country has reported 49 infections of FMD in 18 municipalities with over 278,530 livestock slaughtered, the highest number ever. The farms are estimated to have suffered nearly 300 billion won in losses.
How harmful is it?
With FMD having infected hundreds of thousands of cows and pigs nationwide over the past few weeks and the image of these animals being culled and buried underground widely featured, a growing number of people have become uneasy about consuming beef and pork.
Is it harmful for humans to eat meat from animals that were infected with FMD? Experts say people will not contract the deadly virus even if they consume uncooked contaminated livestock products.
FMD is an acute, highly contagious degenerative viral disease of cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals, characterized by fever and the eruption of sores around the mouth and hoofs. Early symptoms include excessive drooling and blisters on the tongue.
There is currently no cure and more than 50 percent of infected animals end up dying from the disease. The virus is highly contagious and easily spreads to other areas via people and vehicles that have had contact with contaminated farms. It is most active in cold weather. Besides vaccination, the slaughter-and-burial method is the only known option to stop the spread of the disease.
But veterinarians and other experts say there is an extremely slim chance for humans to contract the disease.
“There have been several cases in which humans were confirmed infected with FMD. They showed symptoms of high fever, vomiting and a skin rash. It was reported that two children in England died after drinking milk from a infected cow in 1884,” said Cho Ho-seong, professor at the swine disease laboratory at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Chonbuk National University.
The disease does not occur in most humans, Cho said, adding the FMD virus is extremely prone to acid and does not bind with human cells. “I don’t think FMD-infected livestock will ever be available for human consumption. Even if people did eat it, they would not contract the deadly virus because it does not combine with human cells.”
The FMD virus is extremely vulnerable to acid, meaning when consumed by humans, it will perish from the gastric acid in the stomach.
“The virus is also destroyed when the meat is cooked over 56 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. Milk produced by infected cows does not contain the FMD virus either because it is killed during the disinfection process,” Cho said.
Despite no visible harmful effects on human health, the professor said all contaminated animals should be culled and buried immediately. “Calves and other young animals die when they contract the disease. Most adult animals starve to death because the virus’s degenerative effects prevent them from eating properly,” the professor said.
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