ASF SPREADS IN WILD BOARS

[Anchor Lead]

African swine fever virus was found in the wild boar carcasses discovered in the border towns of Yeoncheon in Gyeonggi-do Province and Cheorwon in Gangwon-do Province. The government designated boar control zones near the border and allowed boar hunting in some areas. However, pig farmers criticize the government's belated measures. Here's why.

[Pkg]

​The government has decided to control the number of boars in the border areas. The measure comes around a month after the first case of African swine fever was reported.

[Soundbite] KIM HYEON-SOO(MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS) : "There will be four types of management areas - areas with risk of infection, buffer areas, boundary areas, and closed-off areas. Different measures will be implemented accordingly."

Fences will be put up along the rivers or roads in the infection-risk areas where boar carcasses were found. Traps and nets will be placed within the 30-square-kilometer area of the carcass discovery site and hunting guns will be allowed within the 300-square kilometer area. Five cities and counties with reported ASF cases and five adjacent cities and counties were designated as the outbreak and buffer zones respectively. More nets and traps will be placed in these areas to prevent boars from crossing over to other regions. Seven cities and counties adjoining these areas are designated as boundary zones where an all-out hunting week has been declared. Starting today hunters can kill boars without reporting to authorities. Until now, the Ministry of Environment was reluctant to allow such activities designed to control the wild boar population. That was because the Ministry believed wild boars are unlikely carriers of the African swine fever virus. The government's belated countermeasures have infuriated farmers who are forced to sell and cull all of their pigs.

[Soundbite] OH MYEONG-JUN(KOREA PORT PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION) : "They're looking to kill farmed pigs while boars are left alone. We farmers are left to suffer for the government's lax quarantine measure."

The government has ordered additional culling. Some 150,000 pigs in 148 farms.