On February 5th, there was a suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease at a farm in Boeun, Chungcheongbuk-do and it was confirmed. So the public health authorities and stockbreeding farmhouses across the country are in crisis.
Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious disease that has a 5~55% case fatality rate after artiodactyla gets a blister on their mouth and hoof. Foot-and-mouth disease virus has a singular point that all the stocks are infected by one stock because it becomes infected through the air to respiratory.
Like this, foot-and-mouth disease has a great influence on farms in the country. Therefore, the public health authorities are so tense after AI.
Recently, about 3.9 million poultry were killed by AI and 730,000 cows buried by Brucella, and the foot-and-mouth disease happened, farms and the authorities felt sorry.
This foot-and-mouth disease has a peculiarity. That is type A foot-and-mouth disease which happened in Boeun, Chungcheongbuk-do and Jeongeup, Jeollabuk-do on February 5th and 6th and the type O foot-and-mouth disease happened in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do on February 9th.
Because of foot-and-mouth disease, those two types occurred at the same time for the first time, the government upgraded its emergency warning from ‘Alert’ to ‘Severe’. It appears that the government considered that this disease occurs in many cities, disinfection conditions are weakened in winter.
This situation in which the emergency warning changed in 7 years after 2010. In 2010, foot-and-mouth disease occurred about 4 months and 347 million stocks were killed and there were about 150 casualties.
Like in 2010, according to the emergency warning changed to ‘Severe’, stocks caused the government’s preventive measures, remembering the past nightmare.
The government ordered a stop motion about livestock production facility and cars. In addition, it warned to get vaccinated. The government’s plans and actions demonstrate its will to shut out the disease’s spread early.
However, on February 11th, a cow suspected with foot-and-mouth disease was founded once more in Boeun, Chungcheongbuk-do. So it was revealed that the vaccine system was very messy. It made farmers angry because the foot-and-mouth disease occurred in the same place and they didn’t believe in the vaccine anymore.
Moreover, farmers should use an oxidizing agent antiseptic to prevent the disease, but most farmers don’t use that antiseptic. It appeared the preventive system’s was slack.
Because of this, the experts of veterinary science cast doubt on the vaccine imported from the United Kingdom about whether it is proper in Korea. One expert in Chungnam University said with concern, “We need a customized developed vaccine to prevent naturalized foot-and-mouth disease. If we don’t develop Korea’s vaccine, the crisis of foot-and-mouth disease will happen again”.
On the other side, citizens don’t visit the market more because of their concern about the increasing price of beef rather than human cases of the disease. Also, pregnant women or parents who care for their toddlers are afraid of their health. For this reason, Korean native cattle consumption is reducing and imported beef consumption is increasing now. Therefore, merchants in markets are shaken with anxiety because of declining sales.
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| The farm is carrying out the disinfection to prevent diffusion of foot-and-mouth disease. |
Kim Eun-hwa, cub-reporter qbxlvlrm5226@naver.com
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