SEOUL: South Korea announces to launch of a nationwide vaccination campaign to combat the outbreak of lumpy skin disease among cattle, the government said on Wednesday, after 29 cases have emerged since the initial outbreak last week.
Authorities are engaged in discussions with both domestic and foreign companies to secure 4 million doses of vaccine by the end of this month, a quantity sufficient to inoculate all the cows in the country, the agriculture ministry said.
Lumpy skin is a highly infectious viral disease, which causes blisters and reduces milk production, is transmitted by blood-sucking insects such as mosquitoes, ticks and flies. It does not pose a risk to humans.
A total of twenty-nine cases have been confirmed across South Korea as of Wednesday morning after the country reported its first outbreak of the disease at a cattle farm last week.
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Authorities have culled all the cattle at the affected facilities and imposed a temporary transportation ban at nearby farms while vaccinating cattle there using 540,000 doses from their existing stock, the ministry said.
The government is scheduled to complete the vaccination of all cattle in the country by early next month.
“If the nationwide vaccine inoculation is completed as planned, the outbreak of lumpy skin disease is expected to stabilize within November given the three-week period needed to develop antibodies for immunization,” according to the ministry.
