What started out as a trickle appears to be snowballing... and now has all the hallmarks of the early stages of a full-blown crisis.<br />Yet another case of African swine fever has been confirmed in South Korea.<br />With the latest case on Wednesday,... there are now six confirmed cases in total,… and the disease looks to be spreading further and further south.<br />Kim Jae-hee reports. <br /> A sixth case of African swine fever has been confirmed on Wednesday,... at a farm in Ganghwa County in Incheon, some 60 km west of Seoul.<br />This is the same region where the fifth ASF case was confirmed on the previous day.<br />Inspections are currently underway for another suspected case in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do Province.<br /><br />The Agriculture Ministry says it plans to inspect pig farms and livestock-related facilities in 154 cities and counties... as it prepares to disinfect them.<br /> A 48-hour nationwide standstill has been in place since 12 PM Tuesday... for all pig farms, feed factories and slaughterhouses.<br />The entire province of Gyeonggi-do is now under quarantine... as is the city of Incheon and Gangwon-do Province.<br /><br />Gyeonggi-do also said on Wednesday it will cull almost 40-thousand pigs near a farm in Paju where a case has been confirmed. <br />That will bring the total number of pigs put down across the country to more than 50-thousand.<br /> Gyeonggi-do is also planning to implement six key countermeasures, such as installing more quarantine control posts, and requesting for cooperation with local military units. <br />The Blue House has also launched a separate task force that will get the latest information from agencies and come up with swift response measures.<br /><br /> The highly contagious African swine fever is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs.<br />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.<br />Kim Jae-hee, Arirang News. <br />
