Big, fast cull in S.Korea over swine fever raises safety concerns

By Jane Chung
SEOUL, Nov 14 (Reuters) - An extensive, rapid slaughter of
hogs to control an outbreak of African swine fever has sparked
concern over whether South Korea is prepared to dispose of the
culled animal, as reports emerged this week a river was
contaminated by pig blood.
Authorities have slaughtered about 380,000 pigs since the
outbreak was reported in September to contain the disease, all
in a northern region bordering North Korea.
That is about 3% of the country's pig herd, for a total of
14 confirmed swine-fever cases. No new case has been found since
Oct. 10.
Authorities had yet to find the right balance in the
response to livestock disease outbreaks, despite repeated
experiences in the past, said Woo Hee-jong, veterinary professor
at Seoul National University.
They may have "excessively culled pigs to keep the virus
from spreading to the southern part where many pig farms are
located", Woo said.
Authorities have been rounding up hogs from larger
surrounding outbreaks than required, and at times wiping out the
herd in an entire region.
Slaughtered animals are buried, with protective plastic laid
inside the pit to prevent the seepage of fluid from carcasses.
But this week, media reported said a stream off the Imjin
river in Yeoncheon county was contaminated with blood that
leaked from 40,000 pigs slaughtered in the region and piled up
on land and on trucks awaiting burial.
"There may be other reasons too, but this happened because
it was handled in a short time," said Lee Seok-woo, head of
Yeoncheon Imjin River Civic Network, which first reported the
contamination.
Lee said residents of the area had raised safety concerns as
the Imjin river was a source of water.

PIGS DIVERTED AT LAST MINUTE
The government has stepped in to stop any contaminated water
from flowing downstream by setting up dikes and conducted tests,
which did not show blood had contaminated the water, the
agriculture ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry also said it had buried the hogs and would
check all sites where they were buried to make sure of no leaks.
A ministry official said the delay in burial was because of
an additional 10,000 hogs were unexpectedly diverted for burial
in addition to the 30,000 originally planned.
The 10,000 pigs had been initially lin3ed up for a process
called rendering, which involves disposing of carcasses by
grinding and treating them in high heat, to be used as manure.
"There aren't many rendering plants, and residents near the
plants had complained so we had to bury another 10,000 pigs and
that has caused a delay," the official said.
South Korea normally buries pigs or other animals infected
with disease but rendering has also been used.
Since South Korea's first outbreak of the deadly hog disease
in mid-September, it has gone to great lengths to contain the
spread of the viral disease, from raising the alert level to the
highest and ordering soldiers to shot wild boars. African swine fever is highly contagious for pigs, with no
effective vaccine. The virus has spread across China and other
Asian countries including Vietnam and the Philippines.
Questions about safety was raised in the Philippines where
dead pigs were reported floating in a river and creeks in
Manila, likely dumped by hog farmers.
In China, where culling of 1.2 million pigs has been
reported officially but the herd has shrunk by roughly 175
million since a year ago, there have been reports of dead pigs
deserted in the open or in rivers.
Lee from the Yeoncheon civic group warned that the coming
winter may mean more problems, with the possibility of bird flu
and foot-and-mouth disease, all at the same time.