Foot-and-mouth hits South Korea

The disease is highly infectious

The South Korean Government has confirmed an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at a pig farm.

The authorities have begun slaughtering 10,400 pigs at the farm near Ansung, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital Seoul.

The new outbreak comes just days after South Korea began resuming pork exports, most of which go to Japan. Tokyo has now suspended imports of South Korean meat products.

Pork exports are worth an annual $400m to South Korea and the last outbreak of the disease, in 2000, halted the trade.

Highly infectious

The government rushed to warn farmers to seal off and fumigate their premises.

Local television showed soldiers and health officials spraying white chemicals on vehicles entering villages and fumigating farms.

While not dangerous to humans, the disease is highly infectious and deadly to many hoofed animals.

It was detected at Ansung after the death of two pigs.

Of the 10,400 animals to be slaughtered, 5,000 come from the farm where the dead pigs were found.

The 2000 outbreak, which began among cattle, cost about $233.6m to tackle.

South Korea is only weeks away from the World Cup when a huge influx of foreign tourists is expected.

Officials said they are trying to minimise the impact on visitors travelling to Korea for the football tournament World Cup and stressed that the outbreaks are in rural areas well away from World Cup stadiums.