South Korea: outbreak of African swine fever case
South Korea reported its second confirmed case of African swine fever Wednesday, 18 September at a farm near the inter-Korean border, Yeoncheon, a day after the first confirmed case reported. Concerns over the spread of the deadly and highly contagious animal virus across the country are raising.
According to the S. Korean Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Tuesday, five pigs were found dead on a farm in Paju, Gyeonggi on Monday. The farm reported this to the Ministry and after thorough testing it announced an outbreak of ASF which is confirmed at 6:30 am on Tuesday, 17 September.
The Korean government has raised the alert level from dangerous to critical. There were no pig farms around in the 3-kilometer radius from the infected farm of Paju. The government said 3,950 pigs on three farms owned by the same farmer were culled, while access to the farm where the infected pigs were found was restricted.
Additionally, it is conducting thorough testing for possible outbreaks at 19 pig farms in a 10-kilometer radius of the infected farm in Paju. Also a 48 hours standstill order starting at 6:30 am Tuesday is issued nationwide for all vehicles to and from pig farms, slaughterhouses and feed factories.
Farms of the two ASF confirmed cases are all located close to the Northern border. In May this year, North Korea reported an outbreak of the ASF officially. The possibility it could spread through border between the two Koreas was already predicted, and now the government is controlling the population of wild boars in this area.
The minster said the government will fumigate all 6,309 pig farms across the country and complete an investigation on the course of infection within 48 hours under the standstill order.
