South Korea confirms first outbreak of African swine fever

South Korea on Tuesday reported its first cases of African swine fever, becoming the latest country hit by the disease that has killed pigs from China to North Korea, pushing up pork prices worldwide.

Five pigs found dead at a farm in Paju, a city near the inter-Korean border, were confirmed to have been infected with the virus, an official with Seoul's agriculture ministry said.

"At this point, it's too early to confirm if the case stemmed from the North," the official added.

Seoul's agriculture minister Kim Hyun-soo said 3,950 pigs from three farms in Paju were to be culled.

"We will make all efforts to stop the spread of the African swine fever through swift disinfection measures," Kim said.

The ministry ordered a nationwide movement ban of hogs and related livestock for 48 hours to curb the spread of the virus, while looking into the source of the virus, he said.

African swine fever is highly contagious and fatal to swine herds, but does not affect humans. It occurs among pigs and wild boars, transmitted by ticks and direct contact between animals.

There is no antidote or vaccine and the only known way to prevent the disease from spreading is a mass cull of affected livestock.

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The confirmed cases in the South came around three months after Pyongyang told the World Organisation for Animal Health that dozens of pigs had died from the disease at a farm near the Chinese border, according to the South's agriculture ministry.

In June, Seoul said the disease was "highly likely" to enter the country from the North and ordered fences to be erected at farms along the border to prevent possible contact between pigs and wild boar.

There are around 6,700 pig farms across South Korea and pig farming accounts for 40 per cent of the total livestock industry.

In May, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation said pork prices had risen by up to 50 per cent both in China and on the Chicago futures exchange as a result of the outbreak.

Last month, it said almost five million pigs in Asia had died or been culled because of the spread of the disease.

The first outbreak of African swine fever in East Asia was reported in China in early August. Since then, the deadly virus has spread across China including Vietnam and the Philippines.

Although this is the first time African swine fever has hit South Korea, an incidence of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in March at a hog farm, the country's first discovery since February 2017.

South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, does not import any pork products or live pigs from China due to its foot-and-mouth disease outbreak history. It mainly imports from the United States and Germany, and pork imports account for about a third of the country's total pork supplies.

South Korea has a pig population of 11.3 million, according to Statistics Korea.