Infecting more than 300 pigs and cows, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak has been reported in four counties of North Korea and experts believe that though it will cause blisters on the nose, mouth, hooves and teats of animals but would not pose any direct threat to the humans.

A North Korean report was submitted to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and it mentioned that 141 out of 298 animals had died after getting infected with this malignant disease.

Quarantining the infected areas to curb the spread of the disease, health authorities mentioned the news of virus spreading to six other cities and provinces.

In order to save lives of 577,000 heads of cattle, 2.2 million pigs and 3.5 million goats, North Korea had mentioned the requirement of US$1 million worth of equipment and vaccines which it believes would help in stemming the outbreak of this disease.

One of the health officials stated, “There is just a slim chance the outbreak would develop into a major disaster. Some animals, despite being vaccinated, may get infected due to particularly weak resistance the virus”.