By Kim Tae-jong
The government confirmed a new case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) at a pig farm in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, Sunday ― the first since last month when the authorities declared a nationwide outbreak over.
The farm in Yeongcheon, 344 kilometers southeast of Seoul, reported to quarantine authorities that six pigs out of 67 showed symptoms of the highly contagious FMD, Saturday. The authorities ordered the farm to cull the contaminated pigs, and halted all movement of any animals outside the farm, as well as disinfecting all buildings and related facilities.
The authorities were looking into the cause of the outbreak but said the additional outbreak will not result in the wide spread of the disease.
“Such occasional outbreaks will be reported more even though we have completed vaccinations nationwide,” said Cho Ok-hyun, an official from the animal quarantine department at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. “The possibility is slim that additional outbreaks will spread nationwide as before.”
Antibodies against the disease are not formed properly in some animals, he said, adding, “We think the rest of the pigs at the farm have antibodies and that’s why they do not need to be culled, but only to be monitored carefully.”
On March 24, the government lowered its alert level for the disease by one notch to “warning” from “serious,” declaring the disease over as no new outbreaks had been reported for 45 days.
The declaration also brought an end to most restrictions on animal farms and allowed livestock markets nationwide to re-open on April 8. The government lowered its alert level to “caution” from “warning” again on April 12, saying the highly contagious disease that swept the country for months had been effectively contained.
Since the first FMD case was reported at a North Gyeongsang Province farm in November last year, the disease hit the country’s livestock farms in almost every region except the southwest. More than 3.41 million pigs, cattle, goats and deer were culled and buried.