A serious outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurred in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in 2010–2011, leading to the

culling In biology, culling is the process of segregating organisms from a group according to desired or undesired characteristics. In animal breeding, it is the process of removing or segregating animals from a breeding stock based on a specific tr ...

of hundreds of thousands of pigs (as of January 2011) in an effort to contain it. The

outbreak In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...

began in November 2010 in pig farms in

Andong Andong () is a city in South Korea, and the capital of North Gyeongsang Province. It is the largest city in the northern part of the province with a population of 167,821 as of October 2010. The Nakdong River flows through the city. Andong is a m ...

Gyeongsangbuk-do North Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상북도, translit=Gyeongsangbuk-do, ) is a province in eastern South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, and remained a province of Korea until the ...

, and has since spread in the country rapidly. More than 100 cases of

foot-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six days, followe ...

have been confirmed in the country so far, and

n officials have started a mass cull of approximately 12 percent of the entire

domestic pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

population and 107,000 of three million cattle of the country to halt the outbreak. As parts of the culling process, it was reported by some sections of the English-language media that the South Korean government had decided to bury approximately 1.4 million pigs alive, which drew complaints from animal activists. The American animal rights organization

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; , stylized as PeTA) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. PETA reports that PETA entities have ...

started online campaigns, arguing that the animals should be vaccinated rather than buried alive. Joyce D'Silva, Director of Public Affairs for

Compassion in World Farming Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) is a campaigning and lobbying animal welfare organisation. It campaigns against the live export of animals, certain methods of livestock slaughter, and all systems of factory farming. It has received celebr ...

, said that they are "appalled", and argued that it is contrary to international guidelines on humane culling, which the South Korean government allegedly endorsed. However the local media had only reported that there had been incidents of swine being buried alive, and that a South Korean agriculture ministry official had confirmed some incidents, but that they had been few, explaining that "officials are rushed to stop the spread, and the number of people involved is too small for the operation," and that until a more humane way to cull the infected swine is found, the government will have to resort to burying the infected animals alive because the "government has temporarily run out of euthanasia drugs." On 12 January 2011, local officials stated that more than US$1 billion worth of livestock have been lost so far to the disease, including government efforts to halt the spread. According to Kim Jae-hong, a veterinary science professor at

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a national public research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is largely considered the most prestigious university in South Korea; it is one of the three "S ...

, the outbreak is "the most serious in Korea's history" and it is difficult to say when the spread of the disease will be stopped, and he said that "the most important thing right now is to control movement in and out of the farmhouses that are affected, and thoroughly disinfect the cars around the area". South Korea's Citizens' Institute for Environmental Studies revealed 32 places that had dead livestocks buried around 4 drinking water facilities in

Gyeonggi-do Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

. A

ProMED-mail Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (also known as ProMED-mail, abbreviated ProMED) is among the largest publicly available emerging diseases and outbreak reporting systems in the world. The purpose of ProMED is to promote communication amon ...

post described the

epizootic In epizoology, an epizootic (from Greek: ''epi-'' upon + ''zoon'' animal) is a disease event in a nonhuman animal population analogous to an epidemic in humans. An epizootic may be restricted to a specific locale (an "outbreak"), general (an "epi ...

and subsequent cancellations of festivities as being reminiscent of Britain's February 19, 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, and even more so of an outbreak in Japan beginning late March 2010, which was caused by the same strain of the virus. In that epizootic cattle herds were found to be 3.9-4.5 times more susceptible to the virus than pig herds, but pig herds had 5.0-13.6 times greater relative infectiousness; thus cattle on infected premises suffered a cumulative incidence of 8.5%, whereas 36.4% of pigs were infected.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:South Korea Foot-And-Mouth Outbreak 2010 disasters in South Korea 2011 disasters in South Korea Agriculture in South Korea 2010 disease outbreaks 2011 disease outbreaks Lee Myung-bak Government Foot-and-mouth outbreaks Disease outbreaks in South Korea Animal cruelty incidents Filmed deaths of animals