SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea has confirmed a third case of African swine fever at a hog farm in a city near Seoul after the country’s first outbreak of the deadly virus last week, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.
The new case occurred at a pig farm with about 1,800 pigs in the city of Gimpo, nearly 14 km south of the city of Paju where the country’s first case was confirmed on Sept. 17, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement.
Since the first outbreak, over 15,000 pigs had been culled, according to the agriculture ministry data. That makes up 0.1 percent of the country’s pig population of above 12 million pigs.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has raised the country’s animal disease alert level to the highest following the outbreak and ramped up disinfection measures to keep the virus spreading further.
African swine fever is highly contagious among pigs and nearly 100 percent fatal, but does not affect humans. It has spread across China including Vietnam and the Philippines.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
