S. Korea culls thousands of pigs to prevent spread of swine fever

SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea carried out slaughters of thousands of pigs on Saturday for a fifth straight day, an official said, as Agriculture Minister Kim Hyeon-soo called for vigilance to prevent the spread of African swine fever. Quarantine officials are expected to cull about 3,190 pigs at a farm in Yeoncheon near the border with North Korea by Saturday, the agriculture official said. The culling, if completed, would raise the total number of pigs slaughtered to 15,333 since Tuesday, when authorities confirmed the country's first outbreak of the highly contagious virus at a farm in the border city of Paju. South Korea reported the second confirmed case of the disease in Yeoncheon on Wednesday. "For the next three weeks, we should not loosen up," Kim said during a meeting to assess the ongoing quarantine and disinfection efforts at the government complex in Sejong, an administrative hub 130 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The outbreaks came despite South Korea's disinfection of some 6,300 pig farms across the country to try to prevent the spread of the disease. The first confirmed case in South Korea came about four months after North Korea reported its first confirmed case of the disease at a farm near its border with China to the World Organization for Animal Health. Since its outbreak in China in August last year, the disease has spread to neighboring countries, including Mongolia and Vietnam. The animal disease does not affect humans but is deadly to pigs. There are currently no vaccines nor cures for the disease. entropy@yna.co.kr (END)