Control of type O foot-and-mouth disease by vaccination in Korea, 2014-2015

On December 3, 2014, a type O foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak began in Korea. Although vaccinations were administered, FMD cases increased steadily for five months, and reached 185 cases by April 2015. Most of the affected animals were pigs, which are vulnerable to vaccination. The FMD virus belonged to the South-East Asia (SEA) topotype that had been observed three times in Korea between April 2010 and July 2014. However, the FMD virus isolated in December 2014 had a unique feature; that is, partial deletion of the 5' non-coding region, a deletion not seen in previous SEA topotype isolates identified in Korea. We conclude that this outbreak included the introduction of a new FMD strain to Korea, and that Korea was now affected by genetically similar FMD virus strains that are related to those from neighboring countries.