Foot-and-mouth disease confirmed at pig farm in North Gyeongsang Province in second outbreak this year

Foot-and-mouth disease, which struck cattle farms earlier this year, has now been confirmed at a pig farm. The government raised the crisis alert to Serious for the affected area and neighboring cities and counties, and launched emergency containment measures.

The Central Disaster Management Headquarters for foot-and-mouth disease said Saturday that an outbreak had been confirmed at a pig farm in Yecheon-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, which raises about 5,500 animals.

The outbreak was first detected during a routine environmental inspection at a slaughterhouse in North Gyeongsang Province, where foot-and-mouth disease antigens were found. Quarantine authorities traced 39 farms that had supplied pigs to the slaughterhouse, and a final positive result was confirmed at the Yecheon farm through detailed testing.

To prevent the disease from spreading, the headquarters raised the crisis alert to Serious for Yecheon-gun, Andong, Uiseong-gun, Sangju, Mungyeong, Yeongju and Danyang-gun in North Chungcheong Province, while placing the rest of the country under a Caution alert.

An initial response team and an epidemiological investigation unit have been deployed to the affected farm, where access has been restricted and an investigation is underway. Only pigs confirmed to be infected will be culled. Clinical surveillance will be intensified at 130 cloven-hoofed livestock farms — housing 9,233 animals — within a 3-kilometer radius of the outbreak site.

In addition, 58 disinfection vehicles, including wide-area sprayers and quarantine trucks, will be deployed across Yecheon-gun and the six neighboring cities and counties to carry out intensive disinfection of cloven-hoofed livestock farms and surrounding roads.

The government issued a 48-hour temporary movement ban effective from 11 p.m. Saturday through 11 p.m. Monday, covering workers and vehicles at cloven-hoofed livestock farms, slaughterhouses, feed factories and other livestock-related facilities in the affected and adjacent areas.

Emergency vaccinations and clinical inspections will be conducted at all cloven-hoofed livestock farms in Yecheon-gun, and emergency preventive vaccinations are also planned for pig farms in the six neighboring cities and counties. Telephone surveillance will be carried out for cloven-hoofed livestock farms nationwide.

"This is a grave situation, with foot-and-mouth disease breaking out again following the outbreak earlier this year," the headquarters said, urging relevant agencies to focus all efforts on movement controls, surveillance, testing and intensive disinfection, and calling on farmers to strictly follow vaccination schedules and basic biosecurity protocols.