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FAO: Foot-and-Mouth Epidemic Worst in 50 Years

22 January 2011 00:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A senior official with the Food and Agriculture Organization says an Asian outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is the worst the world has seen in 50 years, APA reports quoting â€œThe Voice of Americaâ€.

Jan Slingenbergh tells VOA the United Nations organization is monitoring severe outbreaks in Mongolia, China and Russia. He said South Korea and Japan have also been hit hard and that there are concerns about the spread of foot-and-mouth disease in North Korea.

Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, deer, goats and sheep. Slingenbergh said Friday that it appears gazelle populations that migrate between China and Mongolia have also been spreading the disease.

He said the FAO plans to hold an upcoming meeting in Beijing to bring together officials from the affected countries in an effort to stop the disease from spreading further.

Slingenbergh said the FAO has deployed a mission to Mongolia to help combat the spread of foot-and-mouth, in part by using vaccinations. The same strategy has been used in South Korea.

He said the FAO is also trying to track which strains of foot-and-mouth disease are causing most of the damage.

The FAO says an increase in the trade of live animals as well as demand for meat products from a growing middle class has contributed to the outbreak.

Earlier this week, South Korean officials confirmed this current outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is its worst ever.

South Korea previously experienced outbreaks in 2000 and 2002. The current epidemic has forced the government to put down about 1.7 million cloven-hoofed animals since November. Seoul has also imposed a strict quarantine, vaccinating animals and applying other measures to curb the epidemic.

When North Korea suffered an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2007, Seoul sent its own experts, medicines and equipment to help. But the relations between the two Koreas have worsened since then.