South Korean authorities on Tuesday announced that it has begun
killing pigs in the country to prevent the spread of its first case of
African swine fever.
The minister of agriculture Kim Heyon-soo, food and rural affairs
said the outbreak was confirmed at a pig farm in Paju, Gyeonggi
Province, a city close to the heavily fortified border with North
Korea.
A 48-hour nationwide lock down on the movement of pigs in farms and
slaughterhouses was imposed by the South Korean government who raised
the animal disease alert to the highest level of "severe."
Yonhap reported that 4,000 pigs will be slaughtered as a
precautionary step after the first case was confirmed. It is also
expected that over 6,000 pig farms will also be disinfected across the
country in an effort to stop the highly contagious disease spreading.
The virus is not harmful to humans but causes haemorrhagic fever in
pigs that is almost always fatal. There is no antidote or vaccine and
the only known way to prevent the disease from spreading is a mass cull
of affected livestock.
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