For the first article of August, I am going to cover how other countries reacted to the breakout of foot-and-mouth disease. As of June 2009, there were twenty-five countries around the world that faced the breakout. However, in 2010, fourteen more countries faced the outbreak, making total of thirty-nine countries worldwide. To look over the statistics quickly, in 2010, there were nineteen Asian countries which faced the outbreak, seventeen African, two European, and one Central American. Some Asian countries include China, Lebanon, Taiwan, and there are countries such as Egypt, Nigeria in Africa.

 Now let?s look over few countries.

 First country is England. In early 2000, England faced tragic disaster. Over nine months, England had to kill about six million cows, pigs, and sheep. All the crops suspected to be dangerous or infected were killed. To handle tons of carcasses, England chose either to incinerate or bury. However, as this ?slaughtering? method continued, much anxiety concerning animal rights, environment, related persons? mental condition came out. Especially, many environmentalists worried about increasing dioxin in the air. To solve the problem, European countries as a whole collaborated with each other under European Union. EU built programs to watch alerting countries and to monitor after the end. Many countries even made comprehensive underground water map in addition to preparing places for burial even taking wind into the consideration. However, England never used vaccine.

 Second, Taiwan is remembered for its failure to capture the disease. It became a country where foot-and-mouth disease always exists, or possible for the outbreak at anytime. In March 1997, foot-and-mouth disease broke out in Taiwan. To quickly end this happening, Taiwan chose to vaccinate the crops. However, in April, rather than stamping out, the disease spread out more widely. The entire happening was ended only after the Taiwan government imported much more vaccines and vaccinated more crops. However, about four million pigs, which were about 35% of all pigs in Taiwan, were killed.

 Third, in Japan, foot-and-mouth disease broke out in 2000, but the damage was minor compared to other countries, since only about 700 cows were killed. However, unexpectedly, in May 2010, the disease was once again started. As soon as the disease was reported, Japan decided to vaccinate the crops, and killed about 300 thousand cows. After the outbreak, Japanese government passed special laws concerning the disease, and as a result of such method, the disease was stamped out in August, 2010.

 Well, these were some examples of how other countries tackled foot-and-mouth disease. I know the disease is pretty much over in Korea too, but we still need to learn from other countries, and follow what they have done right, and avoid what they?ve done wrong. To add some notes, places in Paju where the carcasses were buried didn?t face any big difficulties after all the heavy rains. There were minor defaults, but they were fixable, and they are fixed! Both Korean and local governments are trying their best to avoid any further damages, so I hope no more losses happen after all these typhoons and heavy rains.