Wednesday, January 5, 2011

South Korea-FMD Spreads; Vaccination of Pigs Under Review

  • [2011-01-05, 16:13:54]
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks have been confirmed in five more regions of South Korea.

The Agriculture Ministry said new cases of the highly contagious disease have been confirmed at four pig farms and one “hanu” cattle farm.

As of Wednesday, FMD has been confirmed at a total of 103 locations, and almost 830-thousand heads of livestock have been culled.

With FMD continuing to spread, authorities are mulling vaccinating pigs.

According to a ministry official, the issue was discussed at a recent meeting of the livestock quarantine consultation committee.

Initially only cattle, which are more vulnerable to FMD than pigs, were to be given shots. But experts recently conceded that more comprehensive vaccination measures may be needed.

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