Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Quarantine officials head to a pig farm in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, where the second case of African swine fever was confirmed on Wednesday. The sign reads: "African swine fever was found on this farm and entrance for all personnel and vehicles is banned." Yonhap |
By Kim Hyun-bin
Quarantine authorities are on high alert after a second confirmed case of African swine fever (ASF) was reported at a farm near another inter-Korean border town.
This is raising concerns that the disease may have already spread in northern Gyeonggi provincial towns and could spread to other regions across the country.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the new case was confirmed at a pig farm in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, early Wednesday morning, after the farm owner reported the death of a pig the previous day.
It came a day after the first case of the deadly virus was detected at a farm in Paju, in the same province.
Quarantine authorities plan to cull 4,700 pigs at the Yeoncheon farm. While the government guideline is to cull pigs at farms within a 500-meter radius of the contaminated farm, the authorities decided to slaughter around 5,500 pigs being raised at three farms within a three-kilometer radius.
After the first confirmed case in Paju, the government killed 4,700 pigs at the farm.
The ministry believes the two cases from Paju and Yeoncheon are unrelated and is investigating how the disease was spread to the locations. Suspicions are growing that the disease may have been transmitted from North Korea, as the cases here come about four months after North Korea reported its first infection to the World Organization for Animal Health.
To prevent the spread of the disease, the ministry designated six counties along the inter-Korean border ― Paju and Yeoncheon, where the confirmed cases were found, and Pocheon, Dongducheon, Gimpo and Cheorwon ― as "tight controlled zones" subject to quarantine measures.
Farms in the areas will be prevented from transporting pigs for three weeks, during which access to them will be banned, except for vet visits, the ministry said.
The government imposed a nationwide standstill on all pig movements at farms, slaughterhouses and feed factories for 48 hours, starting from 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. The lockdown bans all transport of animals, people or equipment from pig farms.
ASF is harmless to people, but is 100 percent fatal and highly infectious for pigs. There is no cure.
The ministry said local pork supply will not be heavily affected, as the number of pigs raised across the country last month was 13 percent more than usual.
While wholesale pork prices skyrocketed more than 30 percent on Tuesday ― just after the announcement of the first confirmed case ― the ministry said the sudden surge happened because wholesalers purchased more than they needed over concerns pork prices could drastically rise.
"Pigs infected with African swine fever are all culled, so people don't need to worry about the circulation of infected pork," a ministry official said.
