Gyeonggi-do, April 'Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Inoculation'

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province will conduct a "FMD Vaccine Mass Vaccination" for cattle and goat farms in the province throughout April to prevent foot-and-mouth disease in spring.

The vaccination targets are a total of 9,560 cattle and goat farms raising 500,000 animals in the province.

The vaccination period is from the 1st to the 30th of next month, and pigs will be vaccinated on the farm according to the existing vaccination schedule.

The vaccine used is a "bivalent (O + A type) regular vaccine" that can protect against both type A and type O, which are the types occurring domestically.

The province will cover the full cost of vaccine purchase for small-scale farms (less than 50 cattle) and 50% for farms of commercial scale or larger.

In particular, for livestock farms where vaccination is difficult, such as elderly farmers, direct vaccination support will be provided through public veterinarians.

After this mass vaccination, the province will verify whether the vaccination was properly carried out, and farms found to have a low foot-and-mouth disease antibody formation rate will be fined between a minimum of 5 million KRW and a maximum of 10 million KRW.

Lim Hyo-seon, head of the Animal Quarantine and Hygiene Division of Gyeonggi Province, said, "Foot-and-mouth disease occurred every year from 2010 to 2019, especially frequently in spring. Thorough vaccination is the best way to prevent foot-and-mouth disease, so we ask for the full cooperation of cattle and goat farms in the province."

Since 2000, Gyeonggi Province has experienced nine outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, resulting in the culling of 1.9 million cloven-hoofed animals.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.