| ■ S.Korea announces cull as foot-and-mouth disease spreads | 2010.04.09 |
| SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea on Saturday said it would cull some 16,000 farm animals due to a fast-spreading outbreak of highly contagious foot and mouth disease west of Seoul. Cattle on a farm on Ganghwa Island, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital, tested positive Thursday for the virus, the agriculture ministry said. Since then, two more cases of the disease had been confirmed. "The ministry decided to step up preventative culling to stop the disease from spreading," the ministry said in a statement. All cloven hoofed animals within three kilometers of the first contaminated farm would be culled, it said. Outbreaks in 2000 and 2002 cost South Korea an estimated 450 billion won (400 million dollars). |