Sixth case of African swine fever confirmed in S. Korea

  • 5 years ago
What started out as a trickle appears to be snowballing... and now has all the hallmarks of the early stages of a full-blown crisis.
Yet another case of African swine fever has been confirmed in South Korea.
With the latest case on Wednesday,... there are now six confirmed cases in total,… and the disease looks to be spreading further and further south.
Kim Jae-hee reports.
A sixth case of African swine fever has been confirmed on Wednesday,... at a farm in Ganghwa County in Incheon, some 60 km west of Seoul.
This is the same region where the fifth ASF case was confirmed on the previous day.
Inspections are currently underway for another suspected case in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do Province.

The Agriculture Ministry says it plans to inspect pig farms and livestock-related facilities in 154 cities and counties... as it prepares to disinfect them.
A 48-hour nationwide standstill has been in place since 12 PM Tuesday... for all pig farms, feed factories and slaughterhouses.
The entire province of Gyeonggi-do is now under quarantine... as is the city of Incheon and Gangwon-do Province.

Gyeonggi-do also said on Wednesday it will cull almost 40-thousand pigs near a farm in Paju where a case has been confirmed.
That will bring the total number of pigs put down across the country to more than 50-thousand.
Gyeonggi-do is also planning to implement six key countermeasures, such as installing more quarantine control posts, and requesting for cooperation with local military units.
The Blue House has also launched a separate task force that will get the latest information from agencies and come up with swift response measures.

The highly contagious African swine fever is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs.
It's not clear how the disease entered South Korea, but a case was reported in North Korea back in May, so authorities are inspecting inter-Korean waterways.
Kim Jae-hee, Arirang News.

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