Gyeonggi Province Pursues Special Quarantine Measures for Livestock Diseases During Lunar New Year Holiday

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Kim Gab-dong] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 6th that it will designate special quarantine periods and strengthen quarantine management to prevent the influx of livestock infectious diseases and block their occurrence as the floating population and activity levels increase during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The province has designated February 9-12, the Lunar New Year holiday period, as a special management period for quarantine blocking of avian influenza (AI) and African swine fever (ASF), with the policy to fundamentally prevent viral contamination from entering livestock farms.

To this end, February 8 and 13, before and after the holiday break, are designated as "nationwide joint disinfection days," targeting areas within a 10-kilometer radius of outbreak farms, migratory bird habitats, wild boar detection areas, concentrated breeding areas, and small-scale farms. The province plans to mobilize all available quarantine personnel and disinfection vehicles from city and county offices, military units, and livestock cooperative joint pest control units for intensive disinfection.

During the holiday period, the province will continuously operate 36 hub disinfection facilities and 46 control checkpoints in each city and county to thoroughly control and disinfect livestock vehicles. Banners prohibiting livestock farm access will be posted at migratory bird habitats and multi-use facilities such as terminals, and quarantine promotion through various media including livestock organization websites, village broadcasts, text messages, and social media will be conducted simultaneously.

In particular, the livestock quarantine situation room will operate 24 hours during the holiday period to enable rapid quarantine measures if livestock infectious diseases occur, maintaining a constant emergency response system with animal health testing institutes, city and county offices, and livestock cooperatives.

Additionally, quarantine officials from the province, cities, and counties will be mobilized to supervise and manage compliance with quarantine guidelines for layer farms with 100,000 or more birds (prohibition of manure discharge, prohibition of outside access) and inspect quarantine conditions at African swine fever-vulnerable pig farms. The province also plans to use designated city and county officers for poultry and pig farms to check twice daily whether disinfection is being conducted and whether there are any abnormal symptoms of livestock diseases.

Kim Jong-hun, director of the Gyeonggi Province Livestock Animal Welfare Bureau, stated, "The Lunar New Year holiday is a period with very high risks of viral transmission due to increased activity from increased floating populations," and urged, "Please refrain from visiting farms during the holiday period, and livestock farmers must strictly adhere to basic quarantine rules including daily disinfection, blocking outside access, and prohibiting gatherings of livestock-related personnel."

Meanwhile, as of February 6, nationwide highly pathogenic avian influenza has occurred 30 times in 13 cities and counties across 5 provinces since December of last year, and African swine fever has occurred 40 times total in 4 provinces since September 2019.