S. Korea Confirms More FMD Outbreaks Near Seoul, East Coast

SOUTH KOREA - South Korea confirmed additional foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks near Seoul and on the east coast, despite nationwide quarantine efforts to contain the spread of the highly contagious animal disease.
calendar icon 7 January 2011
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The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said two pig farms in the Gyeonggi region south of Seoul, and a dairy cow ranch in Incheon, 40 kilometers to the west of the capital, all tested positive for the highly contagious animal disease.

It added animals at a small cattle farm in Gangneung, on the east coast, contracted FMD.

All 64 heads of cattle and 17,900 pigs on the farms have been ordered culled and buried to prevent the spread of FMD, with livestock within a 500-meter radius of the latest outbreaks to be destroyed as a precautionary measure.

The farms had been quarantined as of Thursday after some animals started to show symptoms, like excessive drooling, blisters on their snouts and teats, and loss of appetite, with some deaths reported among piglets.

The latest outbreaks pushed up the number of confirmed cases reported so far to 99, which do not include the handful of cases that are not officially counted as FMD outbreaks because the animals were destroyed before test results were confirmed.

The ministry, meanwhile, said that it has ordered the destruction of around 1.10 million animals at over 3,000 farms, with all 85 livestock farms in the country closed to limit the risk of the disease spreading.

Source: Yonhap News Agency
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