Drones and high-tech forestry technicians have been deployed along the heavily armed borders between the two Koreas to back Seoul’s battle with the spread of African swine fever believed to have been carried through wild boars from North Korea.

Northern Regional Office of Forest Service became the latest to join the government front in its campaign to combat African swine fever after the first case was reported in South Korea along the North Korean border last month.

Three drones equipped with a high-definition thermal imaging camera have been deployed to scan around the inter-Korean border to hunt down wild boars. Along with the three drones, the agency also sent three inspectors specializing in using technologies for forest-related projects to search the areas bordering North Korea including Cheolwon, Paju, Yeoncheon, Yanggu and Inje. The Korea Forest Service has been familiar with the drone technology for application in forest fire and pest control.

Lee Jong-gun, the head of the Northern Regional Office, said that it has formed a partnership with related institutions and steps up monitoring to prevent further spread of the disease.

On Thursday, two wild boars were found dead near the border with North Korea and they were tested positive for the African swine fever, making the 9th case of the infection with the deadly animal disease in wild boars. The country reported its first case last month at a pig farm in Paju, northwest of Seoul and just South of the inter-Korean border. It was less than four months after North Korea reported its first outbreak of the disease at a farm near its border with China in May.

The highly contagious animal disease was first reported in China in August 2018 and has been quickly spreading to neighboring countries including Vietnam and Mongolia.

The disease is deadly to pigs but known to be harmless to humans. No vaccine has yet been invented, so the best way to contain spread of the virus is massive culling, which has resulted in a 40 percent surge in pork prices in China since the outbreak.

After the nation-wide efforts to stop the spread of the ASF, the spread of the deadly animal disease has recently eased in Korea.

By Pulse (Translation)

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]