Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has been found in four cows after close examinations geared toward wrapping up various measures against the highly-contagious disease, which has plagued the country since early April.
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) said Tuesday that it found four infected cows in a farm in Cheongyang, South Chungcheong Province.
The ministry decided to cull all 54 cows at the farm, which is 6.5 kilometers away from the Livestock and Veterinary Research Institute where infected cases were discovered last month.
The MIFAFF checked 5,763 cows in 1,538 farms across the country to see if it could wind up anti-FMD measures because no outbreak had been detected for over three weeks since May 8.
The ministry said if additional cases are not found, it will lift the ban on the transfer of animals soon.
The fatal disease affects cloven-hoofed animals, mostly domesticated ones such as cattle, goats, pigs, deer or sheep. The hitch is that vaccination is difficult because the virus continually evolves and mutates.
Due to the disease, the Seoul administration has destroyed about 50,000 animals this year.