South Korea Milk insights

Half of the confirmed cases of Lumpyskin disease this year were small-scale farms raising less than 50 cows, and it was found that relatively many of them were infected with the vaccine-deferred disease.  According to quarantine authorities, Lumpyskin disease was first confirmed at a Korean cattle farm in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province on August 12, and a total of 17 cases were confirmed over 80 days until the confirmed case at a dairy farm in Anseong on October 29.  According to our analysis, there were 8 farms raising less than 50 Korean cattle, beef cattle, and dairy cattle. Nine were full-time farms raising more than 50 cows. Of the full-time farms, there were 4 farms raising more than 100 cows.  The rate of spread is noticeably slower than last year. Last year, there were 107 cases in total, and after the first 4 cases were confirmed on October 19, there were 54 cases in the 2nd week, 20 cases in the 3rd week, 13 cases in the 4th week, 14 cases in the 5th week, and 2 cases in the 6th week. The number increased explosively in the early stages of the outbreak, but quickly subsided after vaccination.  This year, there were 17 sporadic cases from the first outbreak to the 13th week. The quarantine authorities analyzed that this was because the vaccine policy was effective. In April, the government preemptively vaccinated 1.22 million cattle in 40 cities and counties in high-risk areas.  In fact, this year, it is known that lumpy skin disease mainly occurred in calves aged 4-5 months or cows in the final stages of pregnancy, which are animals that were exempted from vaccination. It was also reported that there were cases that occurred in animals that missed some vaccinations.  An official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ Foot-and-Mouth Disease Prevention Division said, “It appears that some local governments are not distributing vaccines or that farmers are not vaccinating,” adding, “We must not let our guard down until the activity of vector insects such as flies and mosquitoes decreases.”

[Livestock Newspaper Reporter Yong-Hwan Cho] Over the past 40 years, the number of Hanwoo and dairy herds has been steadily increasing, which has greatly improved their meat production and milk production abilities. However, natural breeding is still being openly practiced in some places, which is going against livestock improvement, and so urgent measures are needed. This fact was confirmed by the Korea Livestock Artificial Insemination Association (Chairman Han-Su Song) on the 15th at a conference room on the 4th floor of the Gyeonggi Textile Complex Center in Sanbuk-dong, Yangju-si, with about 40 people in attendance.

[Reporter Jinwoo Lee, Korea Agricultural and Fisheries Newspaper] Following Korean beef last year, pig farms No. 44 and dairy cow farms No. 24 were certified for the first time. Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to increase the total to 221 by the end of the year. Following Korean beef last year, pig and dairy cow farms were the first to receive low-carbon livestock product certification in Korea. On the 10th, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that pig farms No. 44 and dairy cow farms No. 24 had received low-carbon certification for the first time in Korea. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, pig farms certified as low-carbon farms this time are those that utilize technologies such as △ improving the number of fattening pigs shipped per sow (MSY) per year or △ carbon reduction technologies such as livestock manure management.