Every so often cows and pigs in South Korea are infected and numerous animals are artificially killed in order to prevent the spread of the disease. This epidemic, called as the foot-and-mouth disease (or hoof-and-mouth disease), is a contagious viral disease caught by artiodactyla(animals that are hooved with an even number of functional toes on each foot). Also known as FMD, this disease is highly contagious and sometimes fatal for cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids.

It is an endemic in areas such as Asia, Africa, and some parts of South America. The FMD virus is highly contagious because it can be easily transmitted by the movement of infected livestock or animal products, contaminated people, industrial products, aerosols, and much more. Close contact between animals and long range contact by aerosol spread or motor vehicles can all be the reason for the outbreak of FMD. Even people can spread FMD viruses unconsciously.

Basic control measures for tackling the issue of FMD include quarantine and the destruction of infected livestock, and export bans for meat and other animal products to countries that are safe from the disease.

However, the problem does not end just here. Wrong policy execution can lead to bigger problems. A typical example is the case of Korea during the Korea-Japan FMD crisis. Two to three years ago, a massive contamination of the foot-and-mouth disease stroke South Korea, and the government decided to bury the animal corpses under the earth. However due to careless management of the buried sites, decayed water from the corpses leaked out of the site and flowed into nearby streams, which ultimately led to extreme contamination of rivers near farmland and mountains. The government had to spend another bulk of time and money to resolve the pollutions and to protect the environment and ecosystem.

I want to reflect this incident to emphasize the importance of environmental management. Although it may seem that the foot-and-mouth disease does not directly affect humans in any sort of harm, handling it in a belittle manner can lead to bigger problems indirectly affecting our economy and the living of some people. Therefore not only the issue of foot-and-mouth disease is important, but I would also like to stress the significance of environmental management.