SEOUL– South Korea reported yet another case of African swine fever from a local farm in Gangwon Province on Thursday amid lingering concerns over the fatal animal disease in the country.

The latest ASF case was reported from Hongcheon, 102 kilometers east of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The farm was raising 2,300 pigs, and there were no additional pig farms within a 10-kilometer radius.

Health authorities have been carrying out preemptive examinations on all pig farms in Gangwon Province.

Earlier this month, the country confirmed an ASF case for the first time in around three months in Goseong, which was followed by another case in Inje last week. Both regions are in Gangwon Province.

ASF does not affect humans but is deadly to pigs. There is currently no vaccine or cure for the disease.

The fatal animal disease earlier dealt a harsh blow to the local pig industry in 2019, when it infected 14 farms. More than 150,000 pigs were culled that year. Two more farms also reported ASF cases last year.

South Korea has been warning of potential outbreaks of ASF at local farms, as wild boars born in the spring have expanded their activities to a wider area.

“Considering wild boars normally live in a group of five or six, it is likely that the virus has already spread in Gyeonggi and Gangwon Provinces,” the ministry said in a statement.

Since June, the country identified 158 ASF cases among wild boars, up 70 percent from the same period in 2020.

The ministry, meanwhile, said the latest ASF outbreaks are not likely to have an immediate impact on the local supply of pork products.

The number of pigs supplied to the market in August is estimated at 1.41 million units, up 5 percent from a year earlier.

Source: Yonhap News Agency