The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced Tuesday that it will conduct a five-month campaign to implement stronger antivirus protocols against animal diseases in the winter.
The initiative, which will run from October to February, will involve increased surveillance of wild animals and local farms, as well as more rigorous disinfection and quarantine practices for highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI), African Swine Fever (ASF), and other animal illnesses.
The ministry reported that the number of bird flu cases detected among migratory birds had increased by 14.7 percent year-over-year to 3,364 cases during the first eight months of the year.
Therefore, the government is planning to expand testing for the AI virus at major habitats throughout the country, while designating 24 high-risk zones and around 700 farms to be subject to more intensive disinfection.
In addition, private institutions will be mobilized to conduct in-depth, speedy inspections to detect the avian influenza in its early stages.
The ministry is also focusing on how to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). In May, the first FMD instance in more than four years was confirmed, followed by at least 10 additional cases at local farms in the coming weeks.
To address this, the government will extend the vaccination campaign and antibody tests, while implementing stronger quarantine measures in local farms and related facilities.
In response to the ongoing ASF outbreak, the ministry is continuing operations to hunt wild boars and search for affected animals, while installing more fences to impede their movement.
The latest ASF case was confirmed Monday when four pigs from a single farm in the northern county of Hwacheon, where nearly 1,600 pigs were raised, tested positive for the virus.
The health authorities are culling pigs there as a precautionary step and carrying out disinfection work, while issuing a 48-hour standstill order from 12 a.m. Tuesday in the nearby Gangwon and Gyeonggi regions.
Quarantine officials in protective suits enter a beef cattle farm in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, in this file photo taken May 11, 2023, to cull cattle after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease cases was confirmed there and at two other beef cattle farms in the region. (Yonhap)
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