FMD returns to South Korea

South Korean officials confirmed Sunday an additional outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in one of the country’s southeast provinces. South Korea’s Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that the cases were reported on a hog farm in Yeongcheon in North Gyeongsang province and confirmed through testing.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, authorities ordered the slaughter of the six infected hogs and enforced restricted access to the farm. All livestock farms in the country have been advised to take preventive measures.

The announcement of the latest confirmed FMD cases came just days after the Ministry declared victory over the last outbreak of the disease, which broke out in November 2010. In the months following the November outbreak, nearly 3.5 million livestock were culled. Losses associated with the outbreak now total at US$2.6 billion.

In addition to culling livestock, South Korean officials removed import tariffs on 60,000 tons of pork through June 2011. In February experts predicted South Korean pork imports to jump by as much as 20 percent in 2011.

Source:  Xinhua News Agency