(Cheongju=Yonhap News) Reporter Jeon Chang-hae = The North Chungcheong Province announced on the 4th that it will implement a "Special Livestock Disease Prevention Plan" from this month until February next year due to the increasing likelihood of infectious disease transmission from migratory birds.
Firstly, for highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI), which poses the highest risk of occurrence during the winter, customized prevention measures will be implemented based on the type of livestock.
Large-scale egg-laying farms that raise over 100,000 birds will reduce the frequency of detailed inspections from once every three months to once every two weeks to enhance early detection and initial response capabilities due to the significant damage that can occur if an outbreak happens.
Additionally, a "rest period" will be implemented for duck farms until March next year to halt breeding and reduce the risk of infection.
For small-scale farms, native chicken farms, and traditional markets that are vulnerable to disease prevention, daily disinfection will be carried out using 34 joint prevention units.
For African swine fever (ASF), considering the continuous detection of infected wild boars, measures such as refraining from entering the farm, improving drainage systems, and prohibiting the entry of agricultural products will be implemented to prevent the introduction of the virus into the farm, while closely monitoring the compliance of workers with basic prevention protocols during farm inspections.
For foot-and-mouth disease, a vaccine-centered prevention system will be strengthened.
Following the mass vaccination in March, the second half of the vaccination was completed by advancing it from October to September.
As of July this year, the antibody positivity rates for foot-and-mouth disease vaccines in the province are 98.3% for cattle, 95.4% for pigs, and 93.1% for goats.
However, antibody testing will be strengthened for small-scale farms to account for the possibility of missed vaccinations.
Kim Won-seol, head of the Animal Disease Prevention Division, urged, "As farm-level barrier prevention is the most important aspect of preventing livestock infectious diseases, we ask that livestock farmers strictly adhere to basic prevention protocols."