28. December 2010 16:20
Source Link: the Medical News
By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD
South Korea is facing an outbreak of foot and mouth disease reported Seoul’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Foot and Mouth Disease is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease that can affect cloven-hoofed animals including pigs, sheep, cattle, deer and goats. Humans are usually not affected. The three most recent cases take the total number reported in South Korea to 56 with more than 400,000 animals destroyed since November 29.
A ministry official said, “About 389,000 animals have been or will soon be culled around the country... numerically, this is the worst outbreak we have ever had.” The ministry estimates losses related to the disease at around 400 billion won (347.5 million dollars). About 160,000 animals were slaughtered during the previous worst outbreak in 2002. Last Saturday the government launched vaccinations for some 56,000 cattle.
Now the country will face an export ban since it takes longer for a country that launches vaccinations to regain disease-free status from the World Organization for Animal Health. President Lee Myung-Bak on Sunday urged officials to provide “maximum support” to farmers and health officials fighting the disease, including offering gloves, earmuffs and other cold weather gear.
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S Korea's foot-and-mouth disease spreads across five provinces
2010-12-28 11:27:32
Source Link: Xinhua News
SEOUL, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Tuesday confirmed an additional case of foot-and-mouth disease in North Chungcheong Province, raising the total number of provinces hit by the disease to five.
"Foot-and-mouth disease virus has been detected from cattle at a farm in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, that were culled on a preventive basis," the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
Chungju previously witnessed an outbreak of the disease in April. The highly contagious animal disease has spread across the country's five provinces so far, since its first case was confirmed in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 29.
Related to the latest outbreak, the most severe in South Korea' s history, the government announced last Wednesday that it will opt to vaccinate cattle after nationwide quarantine and decontamination efforts failed to prevent the disease from spreading.
It said over the weekend that vaccinations will be expanded to counter new outbreaks in the southeastern parts of Gyeonggi Province. More than 184,057 animals on 7,500 farms and ranches are earmarked for vaccination although the numbers may be adjusted.
Some 471,094 livestock from 2,131 farms have been culled as of Tuesday in the wake of the country's worst outbreak of foot-and- mouth disease.
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South Korea confirms bird flu cases as foot-and-mouth spreads
33 Dec 2010
Source Link: Reuters/Yahoo News
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea, already battling a serious outbreak of food-and-mouth disease in livestock, on Friday confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at poultry farms.
The H5N1 avian influenza virus was detected in ducks in the city of Cheonan, South Chungcheong province, and in chickens in the city of Iksan in North Jeolla province, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.
Detection of the virus had prompted the authorities to cull affected poultry and quarantine commercial duck, chicken breeding farms in affected areas, the statement said.
The government raised the bird flu alert to caution from attention, while its foot-and-mouth disease alert remained at the highest level, the ministry said in two statements. So far, 540,000 pigs, cattle and other livestock have been culled.
South Korea has no human cases of the high-severity bird flu strain. It has had three outbreak of the virus at poultry farms in the past ten years, according to another ministry statement.
The nationwide outbreak of foot-and-mouth has prompted shutdowns of all livestock markets in South Korea, leading to a rise in the price of beef and pork and a possible rise in imports from the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
The outbreak of foot-and-mouth, which affects livestock including sheep, cows and pigs, originated in pigs in the city of Andong in North Gyeongsang province on November 28. The government has been conducting vaccinations in badly affected areas.
(Reporting by Cho Mee-young; Editing by Chris Lewis and Miral Fahmy)
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It's a good question.
Hoof & Mouth1 disease is a highly contagious virus that affects livestock with cloven hoofs. There have been several outbreaks over the past year (April, Nov) which have caused considerable economic damage to South Korean agricultural exports.
Bird Flu2 is a dangerous flu virus variant that could possibly cross species and kill a great many people and birds. The appearance of the virus in South Korea will cause hundreds of thousands- if not millions of birds to be sacrificed and incinerated.
According to the US Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group, the likelihood of bioterrorism aimed at agriculture with the intent of causing economic damage is very high. It is cheap, easy to do and is very difficult to detect. The United States has a very active disease surveillance program as do most countries3.
The appearance of one economically damaging virus in a region where tensions are growing may be a coincidence.
The appearance of a second economically damaging virus in the same region is pushing it.
This incident is being understated but may well blow up into a very serious incident if more information or evidence is discovered.
North Korea has long be suspected of having and actually using biological weapons as far back as the Korean War. In the early 1950s US combat soldiers began to get very sick from a mysterious viral illness which turned out to be an exotic hemorrhagic fever. Hantaan Valley Fever or Korean Hemorrhagic Fever4 turned out to be carried by rats. There have been numerous outbreaks since the war. It is related to the Hanta Virus which broke out in the American South-West during the 1990s.
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1 Hoof and Mouth Disease is classified as a category B biological agent. Category B agents are moderately easy to disseminate and have low mortality rates. They primarily target vulnerable humans and agriculture.
2 Bird Flu (or Avian flu) is Influenza A virus subtype H5N1. It is highly contagious and could cross over into the human population and cause a pandemic. Bird Flu is classified as a category C biological agent. Category C agents are emerging pathogens that might be engineered for mass dissemination because availability, easy to produce and disseminate, or may possess high mortality or a major health impact.
3 Anti-Agricultural Biological Warfare
4 The Korean War's silent killer strikes again - hemorrhagic fever
Source: Are North Koreans using Bioterrorism?
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