Cattle farms to ban people from FMD-prone nations

By Park Si-soo

Gyeonggi Province plans to ban people from countries with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) from livestock farms for a certain period of time after their arrival in South Korea.

The move is to keep both foreigners and Koreans who have travelled to FMD-stricken countries from spreading the highly contagious animal disease. The ban virtually means that farms will not be able to hire these people.

The province plans to ask the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to introduce a bill to establish the legal grounds to enforce access restrictions for those from countries with FMD cases.

The government believes that the outbreak here was possibly imported from China, Vietnam, Thailand or Malaysia.

FMD broke out in Andong, a rural city in North Gyeongsang Province, for the first time in six months on Nov. 29. Since then a total of 41 cases of the disease have been confirmed nationwide, forcing the authorities to cull more than 224,000 livestock.

In Gyeonggi Province alone, more than 30,000 pigs and cows have been slaughtered to prevent further spread of the disease.

Choi Woo-young, a spokesman, said the province is in talks with livestock farm owners to minimize any side effects that may appear after the off-limits period is set up.

He said during the period people from FMD-prone countries will be tested whether they were infected with the disease, which does not negatively affect humans.

Choi said cattle farm operators are concerned the restriction could lead to a workforce shortage. “Many livestock farm owners frequently visit FMD-prone countries for business purposes. Also many workers on cattle farms come from these countries,” the spokesman said.

Choi Woo-yeon, who runs a cattle farm with 40 cows in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, said running his business without foreign workers is all but impossible.

“Now I work with three foreign workers. If anyone of them is prevented from working for visiting their home countries, it will cause serious problems,” he said.

The government has placed China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Yemen on a watch list for frequent FMD outbreaks.

Around 3,000 foreigners, including undocumented ones, work on cattle farms, according to state statistics. Gyeonggi estimates many of them come from those countries.