Gov't to tighten control measures to stem FMD outbreak

SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will tighten quarantine measures and
conduct comprehensive decontaminations of infected areas to stem the spread of
foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), the government said Monday.

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it will start
wholesale decontamination within a 10 kilometer radius of all sites that have
reported a case of the deadly animal case.
All four cases reported this year have occurred in Pocheon, 45 kilometers north
of Seoul, with the latest having been confirmed on Saturday.
The government added that milder weather conditions have allowed the use of
air-borne decontamination agents, with close to 3,000 workers to be employed in
helping farms protect their animals from the contagious disease. A prolonged cold
snap prevented the use of gas agents, causing decontamination efforts to rely
almost solely on the use of quick lime.
The ministry said that to prevent a further spread of the virus, which can
survive long periods in the natural environment, revised rules will be
implemented that call for tough legal action against those who ignore quarantine
rules.
Other changes call for raising compensation for animals culled to reflect real
market prices and to decrease veterinarians' reliance on on-site inspection kits
that have been cited for inaccurate results.
"If an animal shows signs of being sick, a meeting of frontline quarantine
officials will be called immediately that can order preventative measures such as
the culling of animals without waiting for definitive test results," an official
said.
The official added that 10,000 people have been mobilized outside of the Pocheon
region to keep close tabs on livestock farms. Decontamination of farms will also
be carried out once a week from the current interval of once per month .
The Korea Dairy and Beef Farmers Association, the Hanwoo Association and the
Korea Swine Association said it has asked its member farmers to immediately
report and animal showing FMD symptoms.
The government, meanwhile, said that as of Sunday, the country culled and buried
3,450 heads of livestock, including about 1,300 pigs, since the first outbreak
was reported on Jan. 7. The total is larger than the 2,216 animals slaughtered in
the 15 confirmed outbreaks in 2000, although much smaller than the 160,055
animals killed in 2002.
Losses from the 2000 outbreak centered on cattle reached 300.6 billion won
(US$267.3 million), while the 2002 outbreak cost 143.4 billion won as the disease
spread through pigs.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)

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