Korea: Highest alert issued for foot-and-mouth disease

The fifth confirmed case comes three days after the ministry issued its highest alert level following the simultaneous outbreak of two of the seven types of the disease _ types A and O.

It is feared that pig farms will be the hardest hit, because none of more than 11 million pigs nationwide has been vaccinated against the highly infectious airborne A virus.

According to the Korea Pork Producers Association, when vaccination against the disease became mandatory in 2010 after 336,000 animals were culled, pigs were only vaccinated for FMD type O.