hankyoreh

Cows at a dairy farm in Yeoncheon

During the 16 years since the first outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2000, the South Korean government has reportedly spent 3.3 trillion won (US$2.87 billion) just on compensating farmers for cattle and hogs that have been culled and other forms of direct damage relief. Amid a simultaneous outbreak of two strains of the disease and difficulty determining the disease’s entry point, foot-and mouth disease is gradually becoming a more complicated issue, with the damage multiplied by the government’s poor handling of the disease control efforts.

According to figures the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Feb. 10, there have been eight outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in South Korea since 2000, with these outbreaks lasting between 15 and 147 days. Since 2010, these outbreaks have been becoming more frequent. During these 16 years, 3,905,000 cattle and hogs have been culled, and the government has spent 3.32 trillion won just on damage relief, which includes compensating farmers for their culled animals and guaranteeing them a baseline income to live on.

The worst case of foot-and-mouth disease lasted for 145 days, between Nov. 2010 and Apr. 2011, a period during which 3.32 million hogs and 150,000 cattle (3.48 million animals altogether) were culled. The tactic that emerged from this outbreak was vaccinations. Each year, about 90 billion won (US$78.5 million) is spent simply on inoculating the animals. As of last year, 91.7 billion won has been spent on inoculations, including 37.1 billion won allocated by the central government, 15.9 billion won by local governments and 38.8 billion won by the farmers themselves.

But even the inoculations have not been enough to stop foot-and-mouth disease. Even though vaccinations are now mandatory, there were 185 cases of the disease during 147 days between Dec. 2014 and Apr. 2015, and there were 21 cases last year. The fact that the disease has struck animals in Boeun County, North Chungcheong Province; Jeongeup in North Jeolla Province; and Yeoncheon County in Gyeonggi Province already this year is a sign that the disease is spreading. Thus far, 825 cattle have been culled.

The disease is even harder to control this time around because two strains of the virus have appeared simultaneously. Foot-and-mouth disease is highly virulent, since it can be transmitted through the air, unlike avian influenza. After the same strain of the foot-and-mouth disease virus was reported in Boeun County in South Chungcheong Province and Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province which are more than 100 km apart, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced that “the virus appears to have spread to various parts of the country.”

Under conditions such as these, in which there is a high risk of foot-and-mouth disease spreading, vaccinations are the most critical form of disease control, but the evident shortcomings of the government’s vaccination program are increasing anxiety. Even though this is the seventh year since vaccinations became mandatory, it turns out that the government has not regulated the program effectively. Last year, just 6,900, or 7%, of the 98,000 farms raising cattle were tested for antibodies. In terms of the number of cattle, this was 27,000, or 0.8%, of the total 3.3 million heads of cattle, suggesting the extreme shortcoming of the system for testing the vaccinations’ effectiveness. Indeed, the antibody formation rates at Boeun and Jeongeup, where foot-and-mouth disease has definitely been diagnosed, were 19% and 5%, respectively, showing the limitations of efforts to combat the disease.

“Since foot-and-mouth disease had mostly occurred in hogs prior to this, there appears to have been some negligence in the vaccination of cattle. We will increase the frequency of farm inspections and also increase the number of cattle being tested in order to confirm that livestock are being inoculated properly,” said a source with the Agriculture Ministry when asked for comment.

In related news, another confirmed case of foot-and-mouth disease in Boeun has increased the total to four. The case occurred at a cattle farm (115 head of cattle) in the Tanbu Township, 1.3 kilometers from the dairy farm where the first case was reported. This case was the O-type strain of the disease, just as in Boeun and Jeongeup, and the farm where it occurred has a relatively low antibody formation rate of 30%. An antibody formation rate of just 6% was also found at another farm close to the Boeun farm where the latest case occurred.

By Kim So-youn, staff reporter and Oh Yoon-joo, Cheongju correspondent

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