▲ Minister Song Mi-ryung speaks at a Cabinet meeting.
The government has decided to fully introduce smart and AI-transformation (AX) technologies into livestock disease prevention starting next year, while upgrading the Korea Animal Health Integrated System (KAHIS) for real-time risk response.
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Song Mi-ryung reported the K-Animal Quarantine Improvement Measures containing these provisions during a Cabinet meeting held at the Presidential Office in Seoul today (the 3rd).
This latest set of measures supplements last year's mid-to-long-term livestock disease prevention development plan based on changing quarantine conditions and feedback from the field.
Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) plans to introduce a disease management excellence farm certification system starting next year targeting layer chicken farms, breeding boar farms, and large-scale pig farms, offering incentives such as support for quarantine supplies and reduction of compensation cuts.
Farm quarantine inspections will also shift from a government-led model to a farm-led self-inspection framework.
Under this approach, farms will check their own quarantine status using a checklist, while the government will focus inspections on farms that failed to conduct self-checks or present high risks.
MAFRA and private companies will cooperate to develop K-vaccines tailored to domestic quarantine conditions, stepping up preliminary prevention against livestock infectious diseases.
By next year, platform vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)—developed using common technologies tailored to specific virus types—will be commercialized centering on private companies, while the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency will lead the development of vaccines and diagnostic methods for highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI).
Development of an African swine fever (ASF) vaccine will be pursued jointly by the Quarantine Agency and private companies through 2030.
The routine introduction of a highly pathogenic AI vaccine is also under review.
To this end, a vaccine review committee comprising consumers, experts, and related organizations has been formed and operating since last month.
Along with this, missing FMD vaccinations will be tracked and managed by next year, and vaccines prepared for new strains will be stockpiled.
For ASF, wild boars, illegal livestock products, and plasma protein feed will be managed as the three major transmission risk factors.
For highly pathogenic AI, a pre-registration system for people and vehicles entering layer chicken farms will be introduced, strengthening quarantine to a four-stage level.
In addition, the upper limit of compensation paid to farms that cull livestock due to disease outbreaks will be raised from the current 80% to 90%.
For farms that are the first to report a disease outbreak in their respective city, county, or district, compensation of up to 100% can be provided.
The revision of the compensation system will take effect starting next April when the amended Act on the Prevention of Contagious Animal Diseases goes into effect.
This set of measures focuses on inducing prompt reporting and autonomous quarantine by farms, and applying quarantine measures tailored to disease characteristics and risk levels.
The compensation cut reduction rate applied to farms with exemplary quarantine will be raised from 10% to 15%.
On the other hand, farms that intentionally fail to comply with FMD vaccination orders will be strictly managed.
Livestock culling and movement restrictions will also not be implemented uniformly.
Even for the first farm in a city, county, or district to experience an FMD outbreak, partial culling of livestock will be allowed if conditions such as the vaccination type, clinical symptoms, and antibody-positive rate are met.
Farms that received pigs from ASF-outbreak farms will be allowed to defer livestock culling based on precision testing and risk assessments.
Movement restrictions and temporary movement standstills will also be applied in accordance with affected regions, livestock species, and risk levels.
Epidemiological investigations will reduce redundancies and duration through joint central-local investigations, and will be conducted in-depth by expanding the scope of investigation to include farm workers and visitors.
Minister Song emphasized, "The shortage of field livestock quarantine officers is in a serious situation," adding, "We will cooperate with the private sector for tasks such as vaccinations and disinfection, and continue discussions with relevant ministries to improve the working conditions of livestock quarantine officers."
She also stressed, "We will completely overhaul the Act on the Prevention of Contagious Animal Diseases, which currently focuses on post-response, into a future-oriented direction centered on preliminary prevention and risk management, thereby establishing a system foundation that reflects the changing realities in the field."
MAFRA plans to organize related laws, notices, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to implement these measures—consisting of 3 major strategies and 15 tasks—while cooperating with local governments, producer organizations, and related institutions.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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