Asia-Pacific

S Korea has new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-14 14:13
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SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea confirmed an additional outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease Thursday, one week after the country reported its first case in nearly eight years.

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Cows at a farm in Pocheon, just north of Seoul, tested positive for the disease early Thursday, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

Quarantine workers plan to slaughter about 1,790 cows, pigs and deer within a 500-yard (500-meter) radius of the site of the outbreak, to prevent the spread of the disease, ministry official Kim Dae-gyun said.

The site is about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) away from another Pocheon farm where six cows were confirmed to have been infected with the disease last Thursday - South Korea's first outbreak since May 2002, Kim said.

South Korea has slaughtered nearly 2,380 animals since last Thursday.

Foot-and-mouth disease is often is fatal for cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, pigs and goats, causing blisters on the mouth and feet. It does not affect humans.

The disease last hit South Korea in 2002 when some 160,000 pigs either died of the disease or were slaughtered to prevent its spread.
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