Foot-and-mouth spreads in S Korea

Authorities hope tough steps will quash the outbreak

Fears that the latest foot-and-mouth outbreak in South Korea could escalate into a crisis grew on Saturday as further cases of the disease were reported at four farms in the north of the country.

Six pigs were detected with the livestock virus at two farms in Anseong county - the site of the first officially confirmed outbreak on 3 May - and two in the adjoining Yongin county about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital, Seoul.

The contaminated area is far from the World Cup venues

Kang Dae-jin, Agriculture Ministry official

The South Korean Government, which has already implemented the slaughter of nearly 12,000 pigs, ordered that of a further 7,300 pigs on the four farms, and vowed to slay all 300,000 hoofed animals in the area should there be further outbreaks.

However, the government pointed out that all of the cases confirmed on Saturday were located within 2 km of the site of the first outbreak and were likely to have contracted the disease before it was first reported last week.

Bad timing

To prevent the spread of the disease, all farms with a 100-km radius of the outbreak have been closed and two-thirds of the country's 106 livestock markets have also been shut down.

Several checkpoints are in place in the quarantine area and animals within a smaller radius are likely to be vaccinated, reports said.

The outbreak comes just three weeks before the 31 May kick-off of the 2002 football World Cup, hosted by Korea and Japan.

Concerns have been expressed by Japanese officials that football fans due to descend on Korea could carry the virus back across the sea to Japan.

'Groundless' concerns

But Kang Dae-jin, an Agriculture Ministry official, dismissed these fears, the Associated Press reports.

"Japan's concerns seem groundless as the contaminated area is far from the World Cup venues," he said.

Some 20,000 pigs have been slaughtered

Suwon, the site of the nearest World Cup stadium, is 40 km to the north.

The outbreaks have also dealt a further blow to Korea's pork export industry, which before an outbreak of foot-and-mouth in March 2000 was worth $400m a year.

South Korean pork exports, which were banned in 2000 and resumed at the end of last month, have been suspended again.

Foot-and-mouth is highly contagious among cloven-hoofed animals but poses no danger to humans.