South Korea boosts FMD prevention efforts

South Korea is beefing up efforts to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) following the five confirmed cases of the animal epidemic west of Seoul, the agriculture ministry said Sunday (April 11).

The country has found four more cattle and pig farms positive for FMD since it confirmed the first case of the disease's latest outbreaks at a cattle farm on Ganghwa Island, 58 kilometres west of Seoul, on Friday.

The latest confirmations come after Seoul officially declared that it was "clear" of the disease on March 23 after 5,956 animals were destroyed in the country at a cost of KRW42.5 billion (US$37.9 million).

The announcement was made after this year's first outbreak of the disease was confirmed on January 7 in Pocheon, 45 kilometres north of Seoul.

The country had hoped to regain its FMD-free status from the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health around September if no new cases occurred so it could move to start exporting meat such as pork.

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MFAFF) said it will slaughter about 26,000 farm animals at 211 farms around the affected zone to control the disease from spilling over to a broader area.

The ministry expanded the target area for the preventive culling to a 3 kilometres radius of an affected farm from the previous 500 metres and also raised its crisis alert level to orange, the second-highest out of four stages, in a bid to tighten its control of the disease that spreads among cloven-hoofed animals, such as cattle, hogs, deer and goats.

The ministry has installed roadblocks to control human and vehicle moves into and out of the affected Ganghaw area and disinfect farms and vehicles around the area as part of its disease control efforts.

South Korea was hit twice before by the disease in 2000 and 2002, with its losses reaching KRW300.6 billion (US$268.7 million) and KRW143.4 billion (US$128.2 million), respectively.