South Korea to develop AH1N1 vaccine for pigs

South Korea's state animal quarantine service plans to develop a AH1N1 flu vaccine for pigs to protect local livestock from the fast spreading disease.

Combined efforts by experts, businesses and universities should allow the first usable drug to reach the market by mid 2010, said an official with the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (NVRQS).

The service will also develop an easy-to-use test kit that can quickly inform farmers and animal health workers if a pig has contracted AH1N1.

The kits should be ready by the end of 2010 and can check for both antigens and antibodies in the animals.

South Korea currently has about 7,000 pigs farms, raising an average of nine million pigs. No pig raised in South Korea has been found infected with the novel AH1N1 flu strain but such cases have been reported overseas, the NVRQS said.

So far, the disease have had confirmed outbreaks at pig farms in Canada, Argentina and Australia. The disease has also killed over 3,400 people worldwide, including nine South Koreans.