Foot and Mouth disease spreading rapidly

The highly contagious Foot and Mouth disease is spreading rapidly across Korea. Officials at the Korean Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries announced that " FMD has broken out on pig farms in Munbaek-myeon, Jincheon-gun, Chungbuk, Sonyang-myeon, Yangyang-gun, Gwangwon-do, Baegam-myeon, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Anheung-myeon, Hoengseong-gun, Gangwon-do." According to DongA.com, the government has decided to vaccinate pigs for FMD, in addition to cattle, to help contain the spread of this highly contagious animal disease. The government has ordered the culling of over 770,000 animals, while 700,000 are slated to receive vaccinations. Yunhap News reports that the "FMD virus is known to infect almost 3,000 times faster in pigs than it does in cows. Therefore, if we fail to take preventive measure properly, the virus will spread quickly and uncontrollably." Yunhap News also reported that once the ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries starts to vaccinate the pigs, it will be in the areas where pig FMD has previously broken out and 8 areas where mother and breeding pigs are raised which include Anseong-si, Icheon-si, Yeoju-gun, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do, Boryeong-si, Hongseong-gun, Dangjin-gun, Seosan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, and 10 km radius area of Kyeongi and Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do area.