BSE foot-and-mouth disease reduces interest in food procurement in East Asia

Lead: Taipei, May 13 (Reuters) - Asian food traders said on Monday that the region's appetite for food procurement has declined due to the outbreak of new livestock diseases in East Asia, which has further eclipsed the already fragile interest in imports! Taiwan is the only exception to Japan's confirmed fourth case of BSE on Monday, and more foot-and-mouth disease has been found in South Korea's pig population, leading to a slowdown in feed demand This week, Taiwan will buy a ship of feed corn for July shipment On Monday, South Korea's government confirmed the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in two new farms, raising the number of farms that have had outbreaks since May 4 to eight Foot and mouth disease is a fatal disease that attacks cloven hoofed animals, but it is harmless to humans To control the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, the South Korean government has so far slaughtered more than 40000 livestock, mainly pigs This led to a cautious attitude on the part of feed importers 'we will wait and see for a while, and there are no procurement plans at this time,' said an official from the South Korean National Association for agricultural cooperation The outbreak of this highly contagious disease has hit the livestock industry in South Korea In 2002, the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in South Korea led to the stagnation of pork exports to Japan The annual value of South Korea's pork exports to Japan is 400 million US dollars, and the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease comes at a time when Japan intends to resume the import of pork from South Korea According to a trader at an international trade bank in Taipei, feed procurement will be affected more or less after the outbreak of a new round of FMD On Monday, Japan's Ministry of health and welfare announced that a cow suffered from brain atrophic mad cow disease, which has hit the food industry hard The outbreak of animal disease in South Korea and Japan is only a few weeks away from the joint World Cup, which will undoubtedly seriously damage the image of food safety of the two countries.