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By Kang Yoon-seung
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) — South Korean authorities declared Saturday that a supplementary shipment of lumpy skin disease (LSD) vaccine has been delivered to the nation, as it strives to complete the nationwide inoculation by early November.
“The most crucial step in combating LDS is to administer the vaccines,” Agricultural Minister Chung Hwang-keun said during his visit to a logistics center at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul.
“Each local government should act quickly to distribute the vaccine to farms so that they can be administered,” he added.
As of Saturday morning, health authorities had administered the vaccine to 357,000 out of 438,000 cows subject to emergency inoculation, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Since the first-ever outbreak of the viral infection last week, the country has so far confirmed 55 LSD cases nationwide, including three from Saturday. Authorities are investigating four suspected cases as well.
The number of cattle culled so far came to 3,758.
An official administers a vaccine for lumpy skin disease to cattle at a farm in the city of Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, on Oct. 23, 2023. (Yonhap)
The agriculture ministry has been trying to further accelerate its emergency vaccination campaign by obtaining more vaccines from abroad, and the interior ministry promised to manage the overall vaccination program based on plans drawn up by each local government.
South Korea plans to finish the vaccination program by early November, although authorities believe the number of cases will increase for the time being, considering it takes around three weeks for vaccinated cattle to develop protective antibodies against the disease.
LSD, which does not affect humans, is a highly infectious disease that causes skin lesions, fever and loss of appetite, often leading to a fall in milk production and even death. It affects cattle and buffalo via mosquitoes and other blood-feeding insects.
Meanwhile, a cow escaped from a farm in Imsil, 218 kilometers south of Seoul, the previous day while awaiting inoculation. Authorities said it safely returned to the farm and was not infected with the disease.
This photo provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs shows trucks carrying lumpy skin disease vaccine shots in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Oct. 28, 2023. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
colin@yna.co.kr
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