South Korea has been culling thousands of head of livestock in an effort to stem its severest foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in history. The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries says 1.34 million livestock have been culled since late November. In all, 107,500 head of cattle, just under 1.23 million pigs and over 3,700 goats and deer on 3,300 farms have been culled in the past 40 days.
Compensation to farmers, the cost of vaccinations and other expenses may run past the 1.3 trillion won mark. So far, 2.15 million head of cattle and breeding sows in the region have been vaccinated. Sources said losses will require the use of the government's emergency budget.
Some close to the situation predict it could take up to two years to bring the South Korean livestock sector back to normal once the FMD problem ends. The first FMD case was confirmed on Nov 29.
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