Chungnam, Mass Vaccination of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine in the Second Half of the Year

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province will conduct a mass vaccination of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines for livestock at local farms.

The province announced on the 24th that from next month 5th to 31st, it will carry out the "2020 Second Half Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Mass Vaccination" targeting cattle, goats, and other livestock raised in the region.

The mass vaccination will be conducted for approximately 570,000 cattle and goats raised at 14,000 local livestock farms.

However, livestock that have been vaccinated with a preventive vaccine less than 4 weeks prior and those scheduled for slaughter within 2 weeks are excluded from the vaccination target.

Livestock farms raising fewer than 50 cattle and fewer than 300 goats will receive vaccination support from public veterinarians, while other commercial-scale farms will conduct vaccinations on their own.

The province plans to test the FMD vaccine antibody positivity rate by region 4 weeks after the mass vaccination to evaluate whether the vaccination was properly conducted.

If the positivity rate at the time of testing falls below the legal standard (80% or higher for cattle, 60% or higher for goats), special management measures such as fines, additional vaccinations, and retesting after one month will be implemented.

Meanwhile, since the last occurrence of foot-and-mouth disease in March 2016, the province has not experienced any FMD outbreaks for over 4 years.