S.Korea confirms foot-and-mouth disease; fears outbreak

Sang-Hun Choe, Associated Press, Seoul

South Korea confirmed an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease Saturday, two years after the deadly livestock ailment devastated the country's pork exports.

Authorities asked all pig and cattle farmers to seal off and fumigate their premises as they feared the disease was spreading.

Over 10,000 pigs were slaughtered to prevent a spread of the disease after 280 pigs died with blisters in their hooves and mouths at a farm near Ansung, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the capital, Seoul.

On Saturday, the Agriculture Ministry confirmed that the animals were infected with foot-and-mouth disease, which spreads rapidly among cloven-hoofed animals such as cows and pigs but is not dangerous to humans.

The ministry also said that officials had spotted symptoms of the disease in 50 pigs in a farm at Jinchun, a town 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Ansung. Officials were still investigating.

"This is a highly contagious disease that can also affect cattle as well," the ministry said in a news release. "We are asking all farms across the country to fumigate their facilities and ban outside people from entering their premises."

Local television footage showed soldiers and health officials fumigating farms and spraying decontaminants on vehicles entering villages.

Japan imposed an emergency ban on imports of pork, beef, mutton and meat products from South Korea, said Hiroyuki Otomo, an official at Tokyo's Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.

Almost 95 percent of South Korea's US$339 million annual pork exports went to Japan until 2000, when some South Korean farms were hit by foot-and-mouth disease and Japan suspended imports of South Korean pork.

South Korea exported only $75 million in pork in 2001 and $46 million last year, mostly to Russia, the Philippines and a few other Southeast Asian countries.

Japan began lifting the ban on South Korean pork earlier this week - before the latest outbreak nixed that move.

The 2000 outbreak forced authorities to slaughter 2,200 cattle and pigs and inoculate 1.5 million. It cost the government and farmers an estimated $231 million, according to government data.