On Wednesday, May 22, the South Korean Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment announced that it will appoint officials to every pig farm that uses human food waste as feed.

This practice is considered one of the main causes of the spread of the disease, which is not harmful to humans, but fatal to pigs.

Officials will conduct on-site inspections more than twice a month to ensure that the animal feed is heated to a temperature above 80 degrees Celsius for half an hour before being fed to pigs and to check the condition of livestock.

Farms that do not meet the criteria will be fined up to 20 million won. According to the ministry, 257 farms in the country use food waste as feed for 110 thousand pigs, which is one percent of the total number of pigs in the country.

According to overseas case studies, 44 percent of Chinese farms affected by African swine fever used food waste, while 35 percent of affected farms in Russia also used the same practice.

Meanwhile, the government is asking farms to reduce the use of human food waste as feed and strictly prohibits the import of livestock into the country. To date, ASF virus has been detected by customs in 17 separate cases where sausages and processed pork products were brought into the country by travelers returning from China.