Foot-and-mouth feared to spread to pigs

Another foot-and-mouth infection was confirmed Sunday at a cattle farm in Boeun, the epicenter of the latest outbreak. That raised confirmed cases in South Korea to five and the number of cows culled to nearly 1,100 in five days since the first case was reported last week. 

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Sunday, six cows at a farm in Boeun, North Chungcheong Province, were found to have contracted the O-type strain of the disease and were immediately culled.

The disease-hit farm was just 460 meters from where the first infection was detected. Of the five confirmed cases, three are in Boeun, while one is in Gyeonggi Province and the other in North Jeolla Province. 

A cattle farm in Boeun located 2.4 kilometers away from where the first case was detected also reported another suspected case Sunday.

A total of 1,093 cattle at 14 farms were culled as part the government’s preemptive measures to stop the spread of the disease. 

The ministry confirmed last week that the current animal epidemic involved both O- and A-type strains of the virus. This is the first time the country has reported the A-type virus infection and also the first time it is fighting the outbreaks of different virus types at the same time.

The government and ruling Saenuri party held a meeting Sunday and decided to import enough supplies of O+A type and O-type vaccinations by the end of this month to inoculate some 4.8 million cows here.

Authorities are also mulling importing A-type vaccinations from surrounding nations like China, once the effectiveness is tested, as the situation is urgent.

Worries are growing that the animal epidemic could soon spread to pig farms. 

Boeun is also home to many pig farms.

There are at least 3,400 pigs in close vicinity of the county’s three confirmed cases, authorities said. Studies have shown the virus spreads much faster among pigs. An infected pig breathes out 1,000 times more virus to the air than a cow does.

“While the government failed to show effective measures to deal with the A-type strain virus, we are worried that pigs may also contract the A-type strain. There are some 10 million pigs across the country, a far larger scale compared to cattle farms here,” said an official from the Korean Pork Producers Association.

The ministry passed regulations in 2010 to oblige all farms to vaccinate animals against foot-and-mouth disease after the country experienced its worst-ever outbreak, requiring 3.5 million cows and pigs to be culled. But the farms mostly vaccinated pigs against the O-type strain virus only, the most common here.

“It is true that we cannot rule out the possibility of a pig being infected with the A-type strain,” said a ministry official. 

“But for the time being, we will focus on cows confirmed with the A-type strain of virus, as well as heighten quarantine measures to make sure that the disease does not spread to pig farms,” an official said.

Last week, the government began a campaign to vaccinate 3.14 million cows across the country, with a budget of 5.34 billion won ($4.65 million).

South Korean authorities had initially said the disease was unlikely to spread widely, as the virus extracted was one of three types the country has vaccinated against.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)