N. Korea Kills Livestock After foot and mouth disease Outbreak
Pastor Dale Morgan
N. Korea Kills Livestock After foot and mouth disease Outbreak*
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 8, 2007; 7:43 AM
SEOUL, South Korea -- Impoverished North Korea has slaughtered hundreds
of cows and pigs after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, according
to the World Organization for Animal Health.
The outbreak occurred in January at a farm in the capital, Pyongyang,
sickening 431 cows, according to a North Korean government report dated
Wednesday that was posted on the Web site of the Paris-based animal
health agency, known by the initials OIE.
Since the outbreak, quarantine officials have killed 466 cows, including
the sickened ones, as well as 2,630 pigs to prevent the spread of the
disease, the North's Agricultural Ministry said. Some 100,000 animals
within the 44-mile radius of the outbreak site will be vaccinated, it added.
The sickened cows were imported from Tieling, China, the report said.
The communist North has been suffering from food shortages since the
mid-1990s, when natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its
economy and led to a famine estimated to have killed some 2 million people.
The last outbreak of foot and mouth disease in North Korea occurred in
1960, it said.
The disease is not known to be a threat to humans, but it is highly
contagious among other mammals. The disease affects cows, sheep, goats
and other cloven-footed animals, causing blisters on the mouth and feet.