SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has reported to a global animal health agency that it had suffered a total of 48 outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) since Christmas last year.

   The impoverished communist state made the report to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on Feb. 8, saying about half of 17,522 "susceptible" pigs had died from the disease.

   Only 3 percent of 1,403 cows suspected of being infected had died from the disease, according to the report posted on the OIE Web site, while none of the 165 susceptible goats had died.

   At the time the report was filed, no livestock were yet culled as a preventive measure, according to the report created by Ri Kyong-gun, a quarantine director for the Ministry of Agriculture. A map of outbreaks showed the disease had spread out over almost half of North Korea.

   "Vaccination has been applied with a locally developed vaccine but was not effective to control the disease," the report said, adding that the origin of the outbreak remains "unknown or inconclusive."

   North Korea has banned the inflow of pork and beef from South Korea since late last year for fear that the disease -- rampant south of the heavily armed border -- may spread there.

   Despite the measure, the North, which suffers serious food shortages, reported the outbreak to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization earlier this year.

   The country said in the OIE report that it has restricted movement and conducted "disinfection of infected premises and establishments" to fight the spread of the animal disease.

   In 2007, North Korea suffered similar outbreaks, prompting South Korea to dispatch a team of animal health experts amid a mood of reconciliation.

   FMD is highly contagious and affects cloven-hoofed animals like cattle, pigs, deer, goats and sheep. The disease causes blisters on the mouth and feet of livestock and leads to death. It is rarely transmitted to humans.

   samkim@yna.co.kr
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