According to AFP, “Japan, scrambling to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, will slaughter all livestock within 10 kilometres of the disease-hit areas.”
The article goes on to say:
“The highly contagious virus has brought to a halt all Japanese beef and pork exports for the past month and crippled the premium beef industry in the affected Miyazaki prefecture on the southwestern island of Kyushu.
Japan had already designated more than 118,000 cows, buffalo, pigs and goats from 131 affected farms to be destroyed. About half of them have already been put down in selected culls, latest government figures showed.
The disease was confirmed in late April, three weeks after the first animals fell ill, and authorities are racing to stop the virus from spreading to other islands.”
For more on this story, visit the AFP website.
Posted by Haylie Shipp
