Gyeonggi Province to roll out multilingual livestock disease-prevention game app at 583 farms

Gyeonggi Province announced Tuesday it will distribute a multilingual, game-based livestock biosecurity training program called "Farmdemic II" free of charge to 583 livestock farms in the province that employ foreign workers, starting Tuesday.

The share of foreign workers at livestock operations has been growing consistently, but language barriers and limited training conditions have made it difficult to convey biosecurity protocols accurately. Gyeonggi Province developed Farmdemic II to address those challenges.

Farmdemic II is an experiential learning program supporting 12 languages — including Nepali, Vietnamese and Thai — and three-dimensional simulation. Foreign workers access a smartphone app and carry out essential biosecurity procedures on a virtual farm as if playing a game: blocking farm entry, disinfecting facilities and vehicles, administering vaccines, and reporting animals suspected of carrying infectious disease. Learners choose actions suited to each situation and see the results immediately, boosting both comprehension of biosecurity rules and engagement with the training.

Farm managers can use an integrated management system to track each worker's training completion. The system also supports personalized management based on learner level and analysis of training outcomes, allowing farms to run biosecurity education in a structured way.

To improve the program's practical usability, the province conducted three rounds of hands-on training and pilot operations involving about 70 participants, including biosecurity officials and foreign workers.

"The number of foreign workers is growing, but language differences and conventional training methods have made it hard to convey biosecurity protocols accurately," said Lee Eun-gyeong, head of the Animal Disease Prevention and Hygiene Division. "Farmdemic II lets workers experience and repeatedly learn biosecurity procedures in their own language. We expect it to provide real, practical help in raising biosecurity standards on farms and preventing livestock infectious diseases."