Cattle disease spreads in South Korea

A worker moves cow carcasses at a Seoul slaughter house

The South Korean authorities say the outbreak of fatal foot-and-mouth cattle disease in the north-west of the country is worse than first thought.

The Agriculture Ministry says suspected cases of the illness have now been detected on two farms outside Paju and Hongsung, the two affected areas.

A ministry official said 57 cattle and pigs were slaughtered in the two farms to prevent the outbreak from spreading and becoming a national epidemic.

A futher five provinces closed livestock markets on Tuesday. Mass vaccinations and cattle slaughter has been carried out since the disease broke out at the weekend.

People have to dip their feet into a dish of disinfectant to sterilise before getting out of infected areas

Officials are continuing to investigate up to 12 other reports of possible infections in the country.

Foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious and affects cows, pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals.

But humans can not catch the disease.

A number of countries including Japan, Taiwan, Australia and the United States have banned South Korean beef and pork imports.

Civic campaign

The confirmation of the disease sparked a drastic reduction in meat consumption in the country.

It prompted the South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung to lead a campaign to shore up pork and beef prices.

Mr Kim's office included more meat on its cafeteria menu to convince the public that it is safe to eat them.

"We decided to change our menu from vegetables and fish to include more meat to show the people that it is indeed safe," presidential spokesman Park Joon-Young said.

He quoted the president as saying that "we need a civic campaign to block our livestock industry from collapsing."

But beef prices plunged further after authorities detected more cases of the disease.

Livestock markets

To prevent the spread of the problem, authorities ordered the closure of most livestock markets in the country.

Kyonggi province, which surrounds the capital Seoul, shut down its 11 livestock markets on Monday.

Five other provinces further south and east - Kyongbuk, Kyongnam, Chonnam, Chungnam and Kangwon - said on Tuesday they have ordered or planned to order the closure of a total of 106 livestock markets.

The total covers 85 percent of all livestock markets in South Korea,

The Korean peninsula has been free of foot-and-mouth since 1934.

Cases in Japan

Another suspected case of the disease has also been found among cattle in Japan.

The new case was on a farm in southern Miyazaki prefecture, within 20 km (12 miles) from the farm where 10 cattle were slaughtered last month due to a suspected outbreak of the disease.

Confirmation of foot-and-mouth disease would mean the possible mass slaughter of cattle and hogs in the region, which is one of Japan's major livestock producing areas.