Japan suspends beef and pork exports over FMD

 

 

Japan has suspended its beef and pork exports after detecting suspected cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in a cattle herd, in what would be the country's first outbreak in a decade.

 

Animal health authorities culled a herd of 16 cows on a farm in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki Prefecture after three of the animals showed symptoms of the highly contagious disease, officials said.

 

Japan, a net food importer, exported just 565 tonnes of beef last year, including 347 tonnes to Vietnam, 111 tonnes to Hong Kong and 72 tonnes to the US, the ministry official said.

 

Meanwhile, South Korea also said that an outbreak of FMD had spread to its mainland from an island west of Seoul despite a mass cull of livestock aimed at containing the disease.

 

Cattle at a farm in Gimpo, 30km west of Seoul, have tested positive for the highly contagious disease in the first outbreak outside of the epicentre on Ganghwa island, the agriculture ministry said.

 

Gimpo is a mainland region linked by a bridge to the island, where five cases have been reported since the disease was first detected on April 9.

 

Officials said yesterday they immediately culled 194 cattle at the infected farm and three nearby farms, banning the movement of all 74,294 cloven-hoofed animals at 362 farms within a radius of 10km.

 

Authorities already culled some 30,000 animals at 227 farms on Ganghwa to limit the spread of FMD.

 

South Korea ordered a halt to pork and beef exports in January when an outbreak of the disease was confirmed in Pocheon, northeast of Seoul.

 

Outbreaks in 2000 and 2002 cost South Korea an estimated KRW450 billion (US$400 million).