South Korea's foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is spreading rapidly from cattle to pigs, raising the need for a more extensive use of vaccines to stem further outbreaks, the government said Wednesday.
The farm ministry and local governments said that despite extensive quarantine efforts, four fresh outbreaks were confirmed at pig farms across the country, resulting in the culling of 47,300 animals.
"In the past, a majority of farms that were hit by FMD raised cattle, but there has been a surge in cases involving pigs that is triggering alarm bells," a quarantine official said.
Of the 2,857 farms whose animals have been ordered destroyed, only 379 were pigs farms, with most being farms that raised cattle, he said.
Pigs are less vulnerable to catching the disease compared to cattle, but they are able to spread the disease much faster.
Animals at two farms in Gangwon Province in the country's northeastern region along with those at farms in North Chungcheong Province and Gyeonggi Province in the central part of South Korea all tested positive for FMD after they started showing symptoms on Tuesday.
The latest outbreaks raised the total number of animals ordered to be destroyed to more than 826,000.
Quarantine sources said serious consideration is being made to giving shots to pigs, with some kind of decision expected as early as Thursday.
In the past, only cattle have been given shots as part of an effort to limit vaccine use that can delay the country regaining its FMD-free status from the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Besides the four pig farm outbreaks, a small cattle farm with 35 animals in Chuncheon, 85 kilometers east of Seoul, was hit by FMD, requiring not only animals on the farm to be destroyed but those within a 500-meter radius of the infected farm to be destroyed, too.
FMD is highly contagious and affects all cloven-hoofed animals, such as cattle, pigs, deer, goats and buffalo. It is classified as a "List A" disease by the OIE, although it is harmless to humans.
The country was hit by the disease in 2000, 2002 and two more times early last year. Before the latest set of outbreaks, Seoul had used vaccines only once, in 2000, because it had little experience with the disease.