http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110213000334

Summary: North Korea's foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has spread across many parts of the country after the first case was confirmed in the capital city on Dec. 25, a U.S. broadcaster said Sunday.  Radio Free Asia (RFA), quoting a report by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, said the communist country confirmed that since the first case hit a small cattle farm in Pyongyang, the highly contagious animal disease has spread to at least five provinces.  While there are no reports of animals being culled and buried, North Korea said 11,165 animals have been infected so far. Of these, 8,640 pigs have died along with 15 cattle, it said.

Dairy dilemma [English, CSY]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2932150

Milk is displayed at a discount store in Seoul yesterday. Many locals are concerned about the possibility of a milk shortage when students return to school in early March after their extended winter break, which will trigger an increase in demand. The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Korea has affected the milk industry, leading to a decline in supply.

Seoul scraps milk production quota [English, CSY]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2932062

Summary: The government announced yesterday a range of measures to stabilize the supply of milk, as foot-and-mouth disease and a colder-than-normal winter are causing decreased milk production. Seoul said that in an effort to boost production, it would scrap a policy it established in 2002 that aimed at reducing milk surpluses.  The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it would reduce tariffs on imported powdered milk, eliminate milk production quotas after production rights are transferred between farmers and consider the import of dairy cattle.  In the short term, the ministry plans to eliminate tariffs on 9,000 tons of powdered milk through June. It also plans to discontinue a reduction in milk production quota for the next two years, after introducing the quota system in 2002. If the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic continues, the ministry said it would consider importing dairy cows from mad-cow-disease free nations including New Zealand and Australia.

S. Korea confirms 2 more bird flu outbreaks [English, CSY]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/02/13/95/0501000000AEN20110213001500320F.HTML

Full text: South Korea on Sunday confirmed two additional bird flu outbreaks in areas near Seoul despite nationwide efforts to stem the spread of the disease.    The farm ministry said the new cases were reported at a medium-sized duck farm and a small poultry farm that raises chickens and ducks, which reported symptoms earlier in the week.    All 8,400 birds on the two farms in Hwaseong south of Seoul and Dongducheon north of the capital have been culled and buried, with other bird farms within a 3-kilometer radius being checked for infections.  The outbreaks are the first to be confirmed since a chicken farm that raised 35,000 birds tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain on Wednesday, and the 42nd and 43rd outbreaks reported in the past 45 days.  Since Dec. 31 when the first two avian influenza outbreaks were confirmed, Seoul reported cases in five provinces with 5.45 million birds being destroyed at 249 farms so far.  Before the latest series of outbreaks, South Korea was hit by AI three times before, with the last cases occurring in April 2008 and resulting in a record 8.46 million birds being culled at a cost of around 264 billion won (US$235 million). Other outbreaks took place in the winter months of 2003-2004 and 2006-2007.

Milk shortage caused by FMD affecting local industries [English, CSY]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/02/13/30/0501000000AEN20110213001000320F.HTML

Summary: A nationwide milk shortage caused by the severest foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in South Korea's history is affecting local confectionery and dairy industries, corporate sources said Sunday.     Sources from Seoul Milk, Namyang Dairy Product Co. and the Korea Bakers Association said that as of December, the reserves of powdered skim milk stood at just 938 tons or a 77.3 percent drop from 4,137 tons reported a year earlier.  The drop is directly related to the more than 34,000 heads of dairy cattle that were culled and buried since late November when the first FMD was reported in the country.   The animals destroyed account for around 8 percent of total milk cows raised in the country. Seoul has ordered the culling of 3.29 million cattle, pigs, goats and deer so far to contain the FMD outbreak that has spread across most of the country at a cost of at least 2 trillion won (US$1.7 billion) so far.

N. Korea's FMD outbreak spreads across country: report [English, CSY]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/02/13/38/0302000000AEN20110213002600320F.HTML