650 hunters and 707 traps were deployed to capture boars. (image: Yeongdong County Office)
SEOUL, May 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Ever since the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in September last year, the government, Gangwon Province, and other local authorities have endeavored to reduce crop losses by setting up barriers and capturing wild boars.
As fences were set up during the wild boar’s breeding season, the animals were unable to approach local farms for food. Aggressive efforts to capture them also contributed to the reduction in crop losses.
The provincial office has set up a 476.3-kilometer-long, three-layered fence from Cheorwon to Goseong to prevent wild boars from spreading the disease.
Each farm has also set up a separate fence to double the protection from wild boars, and 650 hunters and 707 traps were deployed to capture them.
Gangwon Province captured 22,090 wild boars between October of last year and May 11, after the ASF virus was first detected in a dead wild boar.
The number of captured wild boars rises to 23,416 if the carcasses are included, which is approximately 10,000 more than the number caught in 2018 (10,620).
October, when ASF barriers were first set up, is the breeding season for wild boars, with many flocking to nearby farms with their offspring to find food.
For farmers, wild boars in October meant devastation during the harvest season.
Since last year, however, the damages dropped sharply. Farmers agree that the crop losses have decreased.
“Damages by wild boars dropped by more than 70 percent, so my fellow farmers say,” a local farmer in Chuncheon said. “Now we’re planting corn, and I am not worried.”
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
