Japan yesterday suspended its beef and pork exports after detecting suspected cases of foot-and-mouth disease in a cattle herd, in what would be the country’s first outbreak in a decade.
Animal health authorities culled a herd of 16 cows on a farm in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki on Kyushu island after three of the animals showed symptoms of the highly contagious disease, officials said.
Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals, also including sheep, goats and deer. It is rarely transmitted to humans, but spreads easily between animals, causing them pain and often killing young animals.
CLOVEN-HOOFED
A farm ministry official said as a result of the suspected cases, which would be the nation’s first since 2000, “Japan has suspended exports of any meat products from cattle, pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals.”
Miyazaki Prefecture said the three cows were found showing symptoms of the disease at a cattle farm in the small town of Tsuno, 850km southwest of Tokyo.
“Cows suspected of carrying the foot-and-mouth virus have been found in the prefecture,” Miyazaki Governor Hideo Higashikokubaru said. “We must contain the impact as much as possible.”
Japan, a net food importer, exported just 565 tonnes of beef last year, including 347 tonnes to Vietnam, 111 tonnes to Hong Kong and 72 tonnes to the US, the ministry official said.
SOUTH KOREA
Meanwhile, South Korea said yesterday that an outbreak of foot-and-mouth had spread to its mainland from an island west of Seoul despite a mass cull of livestock aimed at containing the disease.
Cattle at a farm in Gimpo, 30km west of Seoul, have tested positive for the highly contagious disease in the first outbreak outside of the epicenter on Ganghwa island, the agriculture ministry said.
Gimpo is a mainland region linked by a bridge to the island, where five cases have been reported since the disease was first detected on April 9.
MOVEMENT BANNED
Gimpo officials said yesterday they immediately culled 194 cattle at the infected farm and three nearby farms, banning the movement of all 74,294 cloven-hoofed animals at 362 farms within a radius of 10km.
Authorities already culled some 30,000 animals at 227 farms on Ganghwa to limit the spread of foot-and-mouth.
South Korea ordered a halt to pork and beef exports in January when an outbreak of the disease was confirmed in Pocheon, northeast of Seoul.
Outbreaks in 2000 and 2002 cost South Korea an estimated 450 billion won (US$400 million).
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