North Korea asks for help with foot-and-mouth Disease
Pastor Dale Morgan
*North Korea asks for help with foot-and-mouth Disease*
15 Mar 2007 02:41:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
SEOUL, March 15 (Reuters) - North Korea has culled pigs and cows to try
to halt an outbreak of highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease and
asked the South to provide it with medication, South Korea's unification
minister said on Thursday.
North Korea said it had culled 466 cows and 2,630 pigs since an outbreak
of the disease on Jan. 10 at a farm near its capital, Pyongyang,
minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters.
"We will try to help as soon as possible because there is a concern that
it will spread to our region," Lee told a weekly briefing.
Last week, the Paris-based Office International des Epizooties, the
world body that governs animal health, said on its Web site
(www.oie.int) the North had had a foot-and-mouth outbreak. It reported
the same numbers of animals culled.
Foot-and-mouth is highly contagious for cloven-hoofed animals such as
pigs and cows but harmless to humans.
South Korea's government has already stepped up its efforts to counter a
potential outbreak of the disease, monitoring imported goods and
passengers from North Korea, the Agriculture Ministry said. Pyongyang is
about 130 km (80 miles) from the South Korean border.
South Korea suffered foot-and-mouth outbreaks in 2000 and 2002, leading
to the slaughter of 162,000 animals.