Sejong, Nationwide Average of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Antibody Positivity Rate Increases

[Asia Economy (Sejong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine antibody positive rate in the Sejong area exceeded the national average.

The Sejong City Health and Environment Research Institute announced on the 21st that the FMD vaccine antibody positive rate was confirmed to be 97% in the mass inspection of cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle and pigs raised in the region.

The mass inspection was conducted on 32,922 livestock raised at 792 cloven-hoofed animal farms in the jurisdiction. Last month, blood samples were collected and vaccine antibody formation rates were checked from 1,723 heads at 136 cattle and pig farms, mainly those vulnerable to quarantine, as a sample.

As a result, the vaccine antibody positive rate for cattle was 99.5%, which is 1.4 percentage points higher than the national average of 98.1%, and the vaccine antibody positive rate for pigs was 94.7%, which is 2.9 percentage points higher than the national average of 91.8%.

The City Health and Environment Research Institute analyzes that the regularization of the annual mass vaccination period for strengthening FMD vaccination management and support for vaccination targeting small-scale farms and elderly livestock owners contributed to increasing the vaccine antibody positive rate.

Kim Moon-bae, Director of the Animal Hygiene Testing Laboratory, said, “To maintain Sejong’s clean image regarding FMD, we will conduct continuous monitoring of FMD vaccines and manage farms with low vaccine antibody positive rates through re-inspection and vaccination guidance education.”

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