Posted April. 10, 2010 06:10,
Foot-and-mouth disease broke out again yesterday on Ganghwa County in Incheon, 16 days after the government declared that the country was free of the disease. This is the first time Korea has seen two outbreaks of the contagious disease in a year.
The Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said yesterday, We confirmed that nine Korean cows were infected with the disease on a farm in Ganghwa County in Incheon, adding, Were doing quarantine work by slaughtering 2,400 cloven-hoofed animals within 500 meters of the affected farm. The owner of the farm reportedly caught the disease while visiting Zhangjiajie, China, last month.
A ministry official said, The owner is also in the business of Chinese animal feed imports, adding, If the virus was spread through the animal feed, the situation will grow more serious.
The government conducted epidemiological examinations of two cattle farms 1.4 kilometers and 3.5 kilometers away from the farm where the outbreak was confirmed. The two farms notified the government that their cattle developed suspicious symptoms.
On one of the two farms, 30 out of 1,500 heads of cattle that suffered bleeding and blisters, the symptoms of the contagious disease, died the same day.
Foot-and-mouth disease had broken out in 2000 and 2002. In January this year, another outbreak was reported around Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province and Yeoncheon County, but the government declared the country free of the disease March 23.