Foot and mouth jumps to mainland
Quarantine officials sanitize vehicles passing through the tollgate at Ilsan Bridge, which connects Gimpo and Goyang, to deter the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, which broke out in Gimpo, Gyeonggi, yesterday. [YONHAP]
Korea’s Agriculture Ministry yesterday confirmed the sixth case of foot-and-mouth disease this month, as a cow from a farm in Gimpo, adjacent to Seoul, tested positive for the virus.
The latest outbreak fanned concerns that the disease was already on the mainland before recent efforts to stop its spread began, and not isolated on Gangwha Island, where the previous five outbreaks took place.
The Agriculture Ministry announced that a cow from a Gimpo city farm tested positive after its owner, who is raising 120 cows, turned the animal in for a test. The animal is infected with a strain based on blood type O, the same as in the previous five outbreaks.
The Gimpo farm is about five kilometers (three miles) away from a farm on Gangwha Island, where the first outbreak took place in early April.
But the latest outbreak left investigators puzzled as to how the virus has found its way to the mainland. The investigators said the Gimpo farm had seemingly no interaction or connections with the other affected farms, including sources of animal feeds, calf trading, house calls by vets or visits to area vet offices.
“We view that the virus had already made its way to the Gimpo farm before we started sanitary activities on April 8,” said one ministry official who asked for anonymity.
The outbreaks in April have already cost local farms 45 billion won ($40.3 million), as nearly 30,000 livestock have been or will soon be culled. The scale of the damage, for which the government will provide compensations, is larger than the previous six outbreaks in January near the Pocheon area in Gyeonggi, which cost 42.5 billion won on 55 farms.
The government also said another suspected case was reported in Boryeong, South Chungcheong, yesterday. The test result is expected this morning.
By Jung Ha-won [hawon@joongang.co.kr]
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한글 기사 보기
위험지역 벗어난 5.3㎞ 거리 월곶,인근 500m 가축 194마리 살처분, 충남 보령 농장서도 의심증상 신고
사상 첫 구제역 ‘경계’ 경보농림수산식품부는 20일 구제역 의심증상을 보인 경기도 김포시 월곶면의 젖소를 정밀검사한 결과 양성으로 확인됐다고 발표했다. 혈청형도 강화 지역과 같은 O형으로 밝혀졌다. 이곳은 인천시 강화군의 첫 구제역 발생 농장에서 5.3㎞ 떨어져 있다. 반경 3㎞로 설정된 위험지역 경계선이 뚫린 셈이다. 하지만 방역 당국은 아직 강화의 구제역 발생 지역과의 뚜렷한 역학적 연관성을 찾지 못했다고 밝혔다.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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