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| Many people fear the virus may have already spread too far to contain in the northern regions. / Yonhap |
By Lee Suh-yoon
Quarantine authorities sounded a red alert over the weekend after new detections of African swine fever (ASF) among wild boars near the shared border with North Korea.
On Sunday, quarantine officials confirmed two more cases of the virus in dead boars found in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, inside the Civilian Control Line (CCL), 5 kilometers to 10 kilometers from the Southern Limit Line of the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
This brings the total infection count to five for wild boars. The carcasses were near where another dead boar carrying the ASF virus was found on Friday, officials said.
"The ASF-infected wild boar carcasses were found very close to where the virus was last detected on Oct. 11," National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) official Jung Won-hwa said. "There is a likelihood more infected carcasses will turn up around here."
Although harmless to humans, the ASF virus is lethal to pigs. It has decimated pig farms in Asia since the first outbreak in China last year. China is still struggling to contain the virus and has lost around 40 percent of its pigs over the past year.
Since Korea's first case was confirmed in the middle of September, 14 cases have been found at pig farms in the northern regions of Gyeonggi Province and Incheon. Authorities have culled more than 150,000 pigs at dozens of farms within a three-kilometer radius of confirmed sites as a precaution.
However, the wild boar infections mean the uncontrolled animals can spread the virus to other parts of the country, making it more difficult for quarantine authorities to contain the deadly disease.
ASF can be transmitted via contaminated feed or direct contact with wild animals or farm equipment carrying the virus. Due to the locations of contaminated sites ― northern regions flanking North Korea ― officials suspect the virus may have entered from its Northern neighbor, which has been affected by swine fever, according to the UNFAO.
After the discovery of the new cases on Sunday, the government announced it would designate a long strip along the DMZ as a special containment zone. Wild boars found in the zone will be hunted down after traps and fences are set up.
But many fear the virus may have already spread too far to be contained in the northern regions due to the wide distance between the confirmed cases. Two of the five infected wild boars were found in Yeoncheon, 60 kilometers west of Cheorwon, where the other three were found.
According to National Institute of Environmental Research 2019 figures disclosed by Rep. Kim Hyun-kwon of the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of reported wild boar carcasses soared in the latter half of this year ― 17 were found from January to June and 81 between July and October.
