The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) said Friday that it has tightened import quarantine on non-livestock mammals to prevent infectious disease outbreaks.

It will strengthen quarantine inspections on imported wildlife animals to prevent cross-species disease, including the Covid-19 and rabies, which can infect humans and animals. The ministry added bats, rodents, and Carnivora to the existing list.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has tightened rules on import quarantine for wild animals to prevent cross-species disease infections, such as Covid-19, in Korea.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has tightened rules on import quarantine for wild animals to prevent cross-species disease infections, such as Covid-19, in Korea.

The authorities have been focusing on hoofed mammals for zoos, primates, and birds, excluding poultry. With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, they will pay attention to other wild animals to keep them from infecting humans and livestock.

Considering that new zoonosis derived from wild anima occur worldwide and consequent damages have reached an enormous level, the government has pushed for revising regulations by benchmarking the International Office for Epizootics (OIE) and some advanced countries, including the U.S., European Union and Japan, reflecting their management system on enhanced domestic rules.

“The tightened rules are expected to help prevent bringing in zoonotic diseases among the livestock diseases,” a ministry official said. “We will continue to manage and screen from the first step of importing wild animals to block zoonotic diseases from entering the nation.”

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