Yecheon Ramps Up Precision FMD Control to Break the "Cycle of Recurrence"

Urgent expert review as cumulative FMD cases reach 9
Tracking asymptomatic infections and residual virus on farms

Yecheon County said on October 7 that it had held a council of experts on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) prevention and control at the county office on October 6 to review the causes of recurring outbreaks and discuss measures to prevent further spread.

Yecheon County Governor An Byeongyun is holding a meeting to discuss measures to prevent repeated outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease. The meeting covers expert quarantine strategies and reviews vulnerabilities, including asymptomatic infections and residual viruses on farms, following nine cases to date. [Photo=Yecheon County]

The council was attended by experts in disease prevention and control from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, Gyeongsangbuk-do, academia, and livestock producer organizations.

The meeting was held to analyze the current disease-control situation and devise additional measures that could be implemented in the field, after further cases were confirmed despite measures including the operation of movement-control checkpoints, emergency vaccinations, and intensive disinfection.

FMD has continued to occur in Yecheon since an outbreak in July. Antigen-positive results were confirmed again in September and October, bringing the cumulative number of cases to nine.

Prolonged restrictions on livestock shipments and disease-control measures are also increasing the burden on livestock farmers.

The county and experts concluded that, because vaccination alone cannot completely rule out the possibility of infection, it is necessary to strengthen testing to identify infected animals and disease-control measures at the farm level.

Antigens were recently detected at farms with outbreaks in the area despite high rates of positive vaccine-antibody results. This has highlighted the importance of surveillance and testing systems to identify infected animals without symptoms at an early stage.

Managing contamination sources inside farms was also discussed as a key task.

Participants said that the FMD virus may survive in manure and other materials depending on environmental conditions, and that disinfection may be less effective if contaminated material remains. They said farm cleaning, washing, and disinfection should therefore be combined with repeated testing.

Based on epidemiological investigation findings and test data, participants reviewed disease-control measures across the board, including the accuracy of vaccinations, surveillance and testing systems for detecting asymptomatic infections, disinfection practices at individual farms, and access control. They also discussed the difficulties livestock farmers face due to prolonged movement restrictions and possible support measures.

The county plans to incorporate the experts' recommendations into its disease-control efforts and use dedicated officers assigned to individual farms to continue checking for animals that may have missed vaccination and whether farms are complying with disinfection requirements.

Yecheon County Governor An Byeongyun said, "We will closely examine the causes of recurring outbreaks and vulnerabilities in the field, while implementing necessary disease-control measures and supporting farmers. We will respond so that livestock farmers can resume normal raising and shipping operations as soon as possible."

The key to FMD prevention and control lies not only in imposing restrictions after an outbreak, but also in how thoroughly potential infections are detected and residual risks inside farms are eliminated.

With antigens detected even at farms where vaccine antibodies have developed, Yecheon County now needs a field-based disease-control system that goes beyond vaccination and movement restrictions to include detailed testing and management of contamination sources at individual farms.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.