No. of culled animals nears 10 million
By Kim Tae-gyu
The number of animals with cloven hoofs or feathered wings destroyed during this winter approaches the 10 million mark as two epidemics of avian influenza and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) plagued the country.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) said Tuesday that it had killed 9.2 million animals since last November _ 3.45 million due to FMD and 5.75 million related to avian influenza.
The tallies are historic highs for either disease, which has erupted here more often than not in previous years.
The government spent trillions of won this time to compensate farmers and the costs are likely to climb further since the two highly-contagious illnesses have yet to be sufficiently quelled.
``The lethal diseases seem to be relenting of late but they still linger in some parts of the country thus continues to raise the overall number of animals killed,’’ an MIFFAFF official said.
``If not contained right away, the number of animals culled is feared to top 10 million at any time. For example, we slew around 200,000 birds on Feb. 28 alone and 200,000 more have the same fate in store.’’
FMD affects cloven-hoofed animals, mostly domesticated ones such as goats, cattle, pigs, deer and sheep. FMD broke out in late November in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, and spread to other provinces.
Among the total 3.45 million animals destroyed because of FMD, 3.29 million were pigs while 150,000 were cows. The remainders were goats and deer.
Avian influenza broke out at the end of last year in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, and Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and spread across the country.
The Seoul administration pulled out all the stops to keep the double whammy at bay, to little avail. The MIFAFF expects the two deadly diseases to ease as temperatures rise _ the effects of quarantine improves when it is warm.
However, it remains to be seen whether such optimism will be realized, according to experts.
``It is true that the efficiency of quarantine efforts will improve when temperatures rise. But that does not mean that FMD or avian influenza will automatically disappear,’’ said a Seoul analyst who asked not to be named.
``Last year, the situation was the opposite. I hope that would not be the case this year. But who knows what will happen? We cannot afford to be complacent as far as the two diseases are concerned.’’
Indeed, the government has failed to bring FMD under control promptly despite broad-based measures of quarantine and destruction when the epidemic was reported last April on Ganghwa Island.
In contrast, the case of FMD that broke out in January 2010 north of Seoul was immediately resolved.