April 24, 2009

The Korean government said on Thursday (Apr 23) it culled 600 pigs to contain a highly contagious cholera outbreak in the southern part of the country.

According to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MFAFF), the hog cholera outbreak was reported earlier in the month at a farm in Iksan, 230 kilometers south of Seoul, with authorities having destroyed and buried the animals as of Wednesday (Apr 22).

MFAFF said while only 30 animals got sick, it disposed of all the pigs raised on the farm as a precautionary measure.

An official said animal health authorities are taking blood samples from 160 farms in the vicinity of where the outbreak occurred and tests would be concluded next week.

Under existing rule, Seoul pays current market prices for each pig culled to prevent the spread of animal-borne diseases.

MFAFF said the country wants to become a hog cholera free country by 2015 so it can ship domestically produced pork overseas and move to improve livestock raising standards that have been cited for causing the outbreaks.

As the disease is endemic to the country, all pigs are vaccinated, but some do not receive the necessary shots due to oversight by farmers. The country reports an average of 2 to 7 cases of the disease every year.

Cholera, also called swine fever and caused by the classical swine fever virus, causes skin lesions and usually leads to death in young animals.