Korea reports additional African swine fever case after one month

Quarantine officials block a road leading to a pig farm in the county of Yangyang, Gangwon, on Feb. 12, 2023, after confirming an African swine fever case there. [YONHAP]

Korea reported another African swine fever case after a one-month hiatus on Monday, and issued a standstill order on pig farms and related facilities in the country's northern regions, the Agriculture Ministry said.

The animal disease was found at a pig farm in the city of Pocheon, Gyeonggi, which raised 12,842 pigs, after 50 of the pigs died last week and an in-depth inspection was conducted, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

It marked the fifth African swine fever case in the country so far this year, with the last case being reported in the northern county of Yangyang in mid-February.

The authorities are culling pigs raised there as a preventive measure and issued a 48-hour standstill order in the western city of Incheon, Gyeonggi, and the northern part of Gangwon, to be effective through 5 a.m. Wednesday, it added.

They will also carry out inspections into adjacent and other related farms and facilities.

There are 80 pig farms within a 10-kilometer (6 mile) radius of the affected farm, which raise about more than 170,000 pigs combined, according to the ministry.

African swine fever does not affect humans but is deadly to pigs. There is currently no vaccine or cure for the disease.

Yonhap