SEOUL, June 29 (Reuters) - South Korea's agriculture ministry on Wednesday confirmed that a case of swine fever had been discovered on a hog farm on the southern island of Jeju, the first in the country since 2013.
Testing confirmed so-called 'classical' swine fever, also known as hog cholera, had been found on the farm, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
A ministry official who declined to be identified said the disease, which is highly contagious among swine but harmless to humans, was unlikely to be widespread as other regions have vaccinated pigs against it.
The ministry statement said Jeju had stopped vaccinating against the fever nearly two decades ago.
Some 400 hogs have already been slaughtered in the wake of the discovery, with another 4,700 to be culled as a further precaution, the ministry official said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Earlier this year, Asia's fourth-largest economy found fresh cases of foot-and-mouth disease on hog farms. But another ministry official on Wednesday said no new discoveries had been reported since March.
