By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) appears to be spreading further inland after a new outbreak was confirmed Thursday at a dairy farm in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, raising concerns that the highly contagious disease will wreak havoc on the nation's livestock industry.
In response, the government has raised its FMD crisis alert to the highest level, vowing to take all possible measures to contain the spread of the outbreak.
"We received a report on a suspected case from a hog farm in Shinni, Chungju, Wednesday, and the pigs tested positive for the disease Thursday," the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
The farm, 147 kilometers southeast of Seoul, was breeding 1,000 pigs, with some animals showing symptoms such as blisters and scabs on the teats and tongue Wednesday, prompting quarantine officials to seal off the farm and limit the movement of people and vehicles as a precautionary measure.
This is the second outbreak outside Ganghwa Island on the west coast, where five cases were confirmed on April 9 and 10. On April 20, one of the 120 cattle on a farm in Gimpo, about 50 kilometers west of Seoul, developed blisters on its udders and was confirmed to have been infected with the disease that affects all cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs and deer.
The authorities have made all-out efforts to prevent the disease from spreading inland but the latest outbreak, caused by the "O-type" virus strain, the same type found on Ganghwa Island, indicates that the defensive measures taken by the government have been breached.
"Given Chungju's geographical location and the highly contagious virus found in the pigs, we promptly decided to cull livestock within a 3-kilometer radius of the farm, wider than the standard 500 meters," Vice Minister Ha Young-je said.
Ha also said Agriculture Minister Chang Tae-pyong will head a government response team with all regional administrations at the county and ward level to set up special quarantine task forces to respond quickly to possible future outbreaks. The ministry has also raised the disease crisis level to "red," the highest of four stages, from "orange."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Chung Un-chan Thursday instructed related ministries to take preventative measures.
"As soon as we receive reports of the suspected cases of foot-and-mouth disease, we will set up a quarantine task force immediately and take all possible measures to prevent the disease spreading. The government will do its best to financially help the affected farms," Chung said.
The latest outbreaks came after Seoul declared that it was clear of the disease on March 23, following the first wave of foot-and-mouth outbreaks this year on Jan. 30.