SEOUL– South Korea has begun slaughtering nearly 5,500 pigs, and issued a standstill order on pig farms and related facilities in northern regions in the wake of the first African swine fever (ASF) case in about two months, the agriculture ministry said Thursday.
Late Wednesday, the animal disease was reported at a pig farm in the country of Cheorwon, about 71 kilometers northeast of Seoul. It marked the first case since September, when the disease broke out at a farm in Gangwon’s Chuncheon city, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The authorities are culling 5,499 pigs raised there as a preventive step, and issued a 24-hour standstill order in the northern part of Gangwon and the adjacent Gyeonggi Provinces that will be effective through 11:30 p.m. Thursday, it added.
The authorities will carry out an in-depth inspection into 59 farms nearby. There were 24 pig farms within a 10-kilometer radius of the affected farm, and they raise about a combined 62,000 pigs, according to the ministry.
ASF does not affect humans but is deadly to pigs. There is currently no vaccine or cure for the disease.
The ministry said the current ASF situation is not likely to affect the country’s pork supply.
Source: Yonhap News Agency