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A map of areas where ASF has broken out in areas near the DMZ, such as Ganghwa County and Yeoncheon County and the cities of Gimpo, and Paju in Gyeonggi Province.
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Measure applies to even pigs within 3km radius of contaminated farms
The South Korean government has decided to cull all the pigs in Paju and Gimpo, two cities in Gyeonggi province, to prevent the spread of the African swine fever (ASF). Following the occurrence of four more cases of ASF in those areas on Oct. 2 and 3, Korea’s Ministry for Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) announced this extraordinary measure, which applies even to pigs that are outside of a 3km radius of the contaminated farms, in consultation with the municipal authorities. On Oct. 4, the government will begin receiving purchase applications for “finishing pigs,” hogs of at least five months old that are ready to be sold to the butcher, from farmers in Paju and Gimpo. After undergoing a preliminary medical checkup at the farm, the pigs will be sent to the slaughterhouse. Pigs that are confirmed safe through a more thorough inspection there will be slaughtered and their meat stored. But farms that have already been selected for the cull — namely, those that are within 3km of the farms where the Africa swine flu has been reported — will not be allowed to sell their pigs. The rest of the pigs in Paju and Gimpo that are not sold will be culled as a preventative measure. MAFRA said it will also move forward quickly with a discussion of selling or preventatively culling pigs from farms in Yeoncheon County that are within a 10km radius of farms where the disease has been detected. The temporary ban on movement in parts of Gyeonggi Province, Incheon, and Gangwon will be extended 48 hours, from 3:30 am on Oct. 4 to 3:30 am on Oct. 6. By Park Ki-yong, Seoul correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
