South Korea is ramping up its disinfection efforts against African swine fever as the country confirmed its eighth CONFIRMED case of the animal disease.
With FIVE new suspected cases reported on Thursday,... one case at a pig farm in Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul, came back positive.
Two suspected cases,... one in Yangju, a city close to Seoul, and the other in Yeongcheon, Gyeongsangbukdo Province, turned out negative,... while two others are still being analyzed.
All the confirmed cases of African swine fever have been detected in regions relatively close to North Korea,.... such as the northern areas of Gyeonggi-do Province and Incheon.
The highly contagious disease is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs.
It's not clear how the disease entered South Korea, but a case was reported in North Korea back in May, so authorities are inspecting inter-Korean waterways.