Heavy rainfall has been blamed for the spread of vast amounts of pig’s blood into rivers along the Korean border this week, following a cull of some 47,000 hogs amid an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF).

A local NGO claims that blood from a nearby burial site, where some 47,000 pig carcasses had been disposed of, had seeped into the Imjin River due to heavy rainfall. South Korean authorities claim that the pigs had already been disinfected before being slaughtered and that there was a delay in the production of plastic containers for the carcasses.

“It made many people living in the area anxious and worried,” said Lee Seok-woo, who heads the NGO Yeoncheon Imjin River Civic Network.

What was also hard to endure was the odor. I heard many farmers couldn’t work because of the unbearable smell. This should not have happened.

South Korea has culled around 380,000 pigs since the recent outbreak of ASF began. There is currently no antidote or vaccine for the complex disease, which has ravaged swine herds across Asia and upended markets as a result.

African swine fever is not harmful to humans but highly infectious and almost 100 percent fatal in pigs.

For its part, Seoul claims that the blood flowing into the streams had been “dealt with properly” through the use of suction pumps and various other devices. Authorities claim the local water table and potable supply has not been tainted.

“We have built banks and other facilities so that the polluted water does not flow into the downstream region,” the ministry said, adding: “As of now, there is no blood in the stream.”

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