January 20, 2011

South Korea considers using FMD vaccines more actively

South Korea's Farm Minister declared that the country's policy on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccination has to be rethought as further outbreaks continue to spread.

South Korea plans to revamp its national FMD quarantine regime so vaccinations can be employed more aggressively to cope with future outbreaks, a senior policymaker said on Tuesday (18 January).

Farm Minister, Yoo Jeong-bok, said in a news briefing that the most severe outbreaks of FMD in the country's history, which has effectively spread throughout the country, required a "rethinking" of the government's quarantine guidelines.