Quarantine workers complete livestock cull

SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- Quarantine workers have culled and buried 309 heads of
livestock following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the country this
week, the government said Friday.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it buried all 185
milk cows at a dairy farm in Pocheon, 46 kilometers north of Seoul in Gyeonggi
Province.
Of the animals in the farm six were confirmed on Thursday to have caught the
virus that has a fatality rate of over 50 percent.
It said a further 79 nearby cows have been culled along with 45 goats that were
being raised within the high-risk 500 meter radius of the dairy farm. There were
two pig farms in the region but they were more than 500 meters away and separated
by a small mountain.
FMD is highly contagious and affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs,
deer, goats and sheep. The disease causes blisters on the feet and mouth of
livestock and can lead to death animals, although it is rarely transmitted to
humans.
Seoul had banned the movement of animals in the region, started wide-scale
decontamination measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
Sources in ministry, meanwhile, said they are looking into the possibility of
imported hay as the possible cause of FMD breaking out again in South Korea after
eight years. The country reported cases of FMD is 2000 and 2002 resulting in
losses of 440 billion won.
The ministry said that detailed checks on animals showed that the latest
outbreaks were caused by the "O type" of FMD that is usually found in Southeast
Asia.
"Exact cause of how the virus reached the country is being investigated," an
official said.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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