April 21, 2011

South Korea reports another FMD case

Another case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has been reported in a southeast province of South Korea, the second since Seoul lowered its alert level last week.

According to Seoul's Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the new case was found in a pig farm in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, located just about 2.4 km away from the farm where the previous confirmed case of FMD was found on Sunday (Apr 17).

About 80 pigs that showed symptoms of the highly contagious disease were buried and restrictions on human and vehicles' movement has been put in place near the farm, the ministry said.

The ministry said earlier this month that the disease, which broke out in November last year, has practically come to an end, and downgraded the FMD alert level from "orange" to "yellow", the second-lowest status in the four-tiered alert system, as no additional burial of livestock has occurred after the last case in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province, on Mar. 21.

The highly contagious animal disease, first confirmed on Nov. 29, has forced the country to cull more than 3.47 million livestock, mostly pigs and cattle, resulting in losses of KRW3 trillion (US$2.79 billion).

FMD is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease that can affect cloven-hoofed animals including pigs, sheep and goats, while humans are hardly affected by the virus.

The country previously suffered such outbreaks in 2000 and 2002, which caused a decline in the country's dairy exports.