(Uijeongbu=Yonhap News) Reporter Woo Young-sik = Gyeonggi Province announced on the 9th that it will implement the 'Animal Quarantine and Hygiene Policy Promotion Plan', investing 95.6 billion won this year to prevent livestock infectious diseases and ensure the safe distribution of livestock products. This plan will implement four major strategies: establishing a preemptive and systematic animal quarantine system from livestock disease response to livestock product safety management, improving the animal quarantine system to minimize animal diseases, strengthening livestock hygiene management to supply safe livestock products, and fostering and strengthening the distribution and marketing of excellent livestock product brands. 61.4 billion won will be invested in the 'animal quarantine sector' to block livestock infectious diseases such as African swine fever (ASF) and avian influenza (AI). 22.2 billion won has been allocated for livestock disposal compensation and disposal site management to support rapid recovery of farms when livestock infectious diseases occur. Customized vaccines will also be supplied based on disease test results to respond to diseases with various genotypes. For poultry farms, vaccines suitable for the disease characteristics of the farm and genotype will be selected and supported for infectious bronchitis (IB) in chickens, and for pig farms, for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) in pigs. 12 billion won will be invested in the livestock product distribution and safety sector to strengthen safety management from production to distribution and consumption of livestock products, including HACCP certification consulting, fostering high-quality safe livestock products, supporting the closure and full-time operation of feedlot slaughter businesses, and supporting cow ear tag attachment costs. In addition, the Gyeonggi Province Honey Bee (native bee) Honey Brand Production and Distribution Support Project will support the strengthening of the brand competitiveness of honey bee farmers and the increase of farm income. Lee Kang-young, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Livestock Animal Welfare Bureau, said, "Livestock farms are always exposed to the risk of fatal livestock infectious diseases such as avian influenza or African swine fever," and "We will create an environment to minimize livestock disease damage and supply high-quality safe livestock products by smoothly implementing prepared policies." wyshik@yna.co.kr