Chungnam, Mass Vaccination of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine for Farm-Raised Cattle and Goats

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province will conduct a mass vaccination of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines for livestock raised on farms within the region.

The province announced on the 27th that from November 1 to November 11, FMD vaccines will be administered to approximately 583,000 livestock, including cattle and goats, raised on about 15,000 farms.

However, livestock that have been vaccinated less than four weeks prior or are scheduled for slaughter or shipment within two weeks will be excluded from the vaccination target.

Additionally, cattle in the late stages of pregnancy with a high risk of miscarriage will be separately managed by city and county authorities to allow for additional vaccination after delivery.

The vaccine used is a bivalent FMD vaccine combining types A and O. Vaccinations will be conducted directly by public veterinarians visiting farms with fewer than 50 cattle or fewer than 300 goats, while larger commercial farms will carry out vaccinations independently.

In this case, small-scale farms will receive vaccine purchases supported by city and county governments, and commercial farmers with 50 or more cattle will receive a 50% subsidy on vaccine costs.

The province will also conduct antibody positivity rate tests four weeks after vaccination to verify that the mass vaccination has been properly carried out.

For farms where the antibody positivity rate falls below the legal standard (80% or higher for cattle, 60% or higher for goats), additional vaccinations and retesting will be conducted.

Furthermore, such farms will be fined and excluded from government support programs such as vaccination subsidies.

Meanwhile, as of July, the FMD antibody positivity rates for livestock in Chungnam were 97.9% for cattle and 95.6% for pigs, ranking first nationwide. Chungnam has not experienced any FMD outbreaks for over six years since March 2016.

Shin Yong-wook, head of the Animal Quarantine and Hygiene Division of the province, stated, “Foot-and-mouth disease is a malignant livestock infectious disease that can only be prevented through vaccination,” and urged, “We ask all farms to actively participate in the mass vaccination.”