Chungnam Province Launches All-Out Effort to Prevent Foot-and-Mouth Disease Influx and Spread

Chungnam Province is focusing its administrative efforts on preventing the introduction and spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) within the region.

According to Chungnam Province on the 23rd, FMD occurred for the first time in over four years on the 10th at a Korean beef farm in Cheongju, Chungbuk. From that day until the 18th, additional FMD cases were reported at 11 Korean beef and goat farms in Cheongju and Jeungpyeong.

The concern is that the straight-line distance between the FMD-confirmed area in Cheongju and Cheonan, Chungnam, is only 7 km, raising fears of FMD spreading into Chungnam.

A veterinarian is administering a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine to a cow. The photo is unrelated to the article. Source=Yonhap News

In response, immediately after the FMD outbreak in Cheongju, Chungnam Province held emergency quarantine meetings with city and county officials and disseminated the situation to local ruminant livestock farms, implementing quarantine measures such as temporary suspension of ruminant movement.

Additionally, a quarantine zone was established centered on Cheonan, and from the 11th to the 14th, emergency vaccinations were administered to 117,000 ruminant livestock in Cheonan.

From the 16th to the 21st, additional vaccinations were carried out for 1,388,000 head of livestock across the province, completing emergency vaccinations for a total of 1,505,000 animals at 6,700 livestock farms in all cities and counties within Chungnam.

Currently, Chungnam raises 2,433,000 pigs, 516,000 cattle, and 49,000 goats, totaling 2,998,000 ruminant livestock on farms.

Among these, ruminants that have been vaccinated less than three weeks ago, are under two months old, or are within two weeks of shipment were excluded from the vaccination targets.

On the 19th, Chungnam Province also issued the highest level ‘Severe’ FMD crisis alert for the Cheonan area.

Accordingly, detailed inspections were conducted on 452 locations (including vehicles) related epidemiologically to the infected farms, and movement restrictions, disinfection, and surveillance were strengthened.

Furthermore, Chungnam Province recommended local livestock cooperatives postpone the opening of 10 livestock markets within the province until the 26th of this month.

Going forward, Chungnam Province will conduct telephone surveillance once daily in Cheonan and once weekly in other cities and counties to monitor the spread of FMD, and assign dedicated officers to 3,514 specialized farms raising 50 or more cattle to conduct frequent on-site quarantine inspections.

Oh Jin-gi, Director of the Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock Bureau of Chungnam Province, stated, "Chungnam is the nation’s top pig-raising region and the third largest cattle-raising area, making it the largest supplier of livestock products in Korea. The province will concentrate administrative efforts, in cooperation with cities, counties, and related agencies, to block the introduction of FMD into the region."

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