Nationwide foot-and-mouth disease cull
Enforcement Action
Expired
November 28, 2010
Summary
Following confirmation of a foot-and-mouth disease index case on 28 November 2010 at a pig-farming complex in Andong, South Korean authorities implemented a nationwide stamping-out campaign that destroyed and buried approximately 3.48 million pigs and cattle across 5,660 farms through April 2011. The response combined mass culling, national livestock market closures, movement restrictions, and an emergency vaccination programme beginning 25 December 2010. It was the country’s largest recorded foot-and-mouth disease epidemic by animal numbers, following eight prior outbreaks and cumulative culls of 3.9 million cattle and hogs between 2000 and 2010.
Background Context
South Korea experienced eight foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks between 2000 and 2010, with government policy through this period emphasising slaughter over vaccination as the primary eradication method; vaccination had been used only once before, in 2000. An earlier 2010 outbreak led to the culling of at least 30,000 pigs between April and mid-June, briefly believed contained before the epidemic re-emerged in November 2010. Epidemiological analysis attributes the scale of spread to routine animal husbandry and human movement patterns within densely concentrated smallholder pig and cattle farming regions, rather than long-distance animal transport, creating conditions for rapid transmission once the index case was confirmed.
System Impact
System Scale Direction
System Contraction
Type
Changes Scale
Significance
High
The stamping-out campaign destroyed 3.32 million hogs and 150,000 cattle across 5,660 farms in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gyeonggi-do, and other livestock-dense provinces between late November 2010 and April 2011. Carcass disposal relied on burial, with 4,788 landfill sites constructed nationally, a number of which were later documented as located near drinking water facilities in Gyeonggi-do. All 84 national livestock markets were closed and movement restrictions were imposed in affected zones. An emergency vaccination programme began 25 December 2010, covering 1.2 million cattle within two weeks and later extending to 210,000 brood sows; detection rates declined following completion of the combined vaccination and culling programme, and the epidemic concluded after 145 days. Nine civil servants were reported killed and over 150 people injured during enforcement and disposal operations.
Anticipated Effects
None documented at time of record creation. The specific 2010–2011 campaign concluded in April 2011; subsequent revisions to national contingency plans are addressed as a distinct development where separately sourced, not as an anticipated effect of this record.
Significance Rationale
The cull removed approximately 33.3% of the national pig population, 8.4% of dairy cows, and 3.4% of cattle across 5,660 farms nationally, with government relief expenditure reaching 3.32 trillion won across the cumulative 2000–2016 outbreak period, which supports High significance.
Within The System
Key Actors
The Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency (QIA) directed outbreak investigation, culling operations, and surveillance. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF), now the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, held policy authority over disease control, compensation, and the vaccination decision. Provincial and municipal governments implemented culling orders and burial site construction. Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA) publicly challenged aspects of the culling and burial strategy, and the Citizens’ Institute for Environmental Studies documented burial sites near drinking water facilities in Gyeonggi-do.
Notice an inaccuracy or omission?
If you believe information on this page is incorrect, incomplete, or missing important context, you may submit a suggested correction for review.