Foot and mouth disease plagues food trade in Asia

Lead: Taipei, June 3 (Reuters) - Asian food buyers are expected to reduce their purchases this week as Chicago futures prices remain strong and a new case of foot-and-mouth disease is found in South Korea, traders said 'we need to buy corn that will arrive in mid October and beyond, but we will buy it later because of new cases of foot-and-mouth disease,' a member of the Korean Feed Association Pusan KFA told Reuters by phone On Monday, South Korea confirmed the discovery of the virus in a pig South Korea is trying to control the highly contagious disease, because the World Cup football match is going on in South Korea The disease is fatal to cloven hooves but harmless to humans Since May, South Korea's pig industry has suffered a lot from this So far, 114500 pigs have been slaughtered Taiwan's feed group said it would issue a bid on Wednesday to buy 56000 tons of American corn, scheduled for July Japanese feed producers this week will buy corn and soybeans on a July to September shipment.