VOA慢速英语-朝鲜是抗击猪流感的薄弱环节

North Korea Weak Link in Fight Against Swine Flu

South Korea is creating traps and using unmanned aircraft and expert gunmen in an effort to stop wild pigs from spreading the disease swine flu from North Korea.

African swine flu is deadly to pigs but is not a threat to humans. The virus has killed large numbers of pigs in many Asian countries. Experts believe wild hogs² are a main reason for its spread. Officials say North Korea has ignored the South’s repeated calls for joint³ efforts to stop the disease.

South Korea has destroyed about 154,500 pigs in the past month. All were taken from farms near the North Korean border. North Korea has not released any detailed⁴ reports on the disease. But South Korea’s intelligence agency says that pig herds⁶ in one North Korea province were almost totally lost. North Korea observers in Seoul say pork prices in markets there have increased.

Start of the disease

North Korea first reported an outbreak in May after the disease spread widely in neighboring China. Chinese officials say farms in the country have slaughtered⁷ at least 1.17 million pigs in an effort to control the disease since August 2018.

North Korea told the World Organization for Animal Health that 77 of 99 pigs at a farm in Jagang province died of the disease. The remaining 22 pigs were destroyed. North Korea said it is fighting hard to stop the disease’s spread, but has not reported any other outbreaks.

Suh Hoon is director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. He told lawmakers in a private meeting last month that African swine flu has spread across North Korea. He reportedly added that groups of wild pigs in an area north of the capital, Pyongyang, had been “annihilated” and people were complaining about the lack of meat.

South Korean officials confirmed the first swine flu outbreak in the town of Paju on September seventeenth. Since then, officials have reported at least 13 more cases.

Risks to South Korea

Failure to contain the disease would be severely⁹ damaging for South Korea’s pork industry. The situation would be much worse for the North, where food supplies are often limited.

South Korean officials say North Korea had about 2.6 million pigs in 14 government-run or cooperative¹⁰ farms before the disease’s outbreak.

Cho Chung-hui is a former North Korean official in charge of farm animal issues. He fled to South Korea in 2011. He says pork makes up as much as 80 percent of protein eaten by North Korea’s 25 million people. Many North Koreans raise and sell a pig or two each year to be able to buy rice.

Cho said a 100-kilogram hog¹ can be sold to buy about 150 kilograms of rice. That is enough for a family for a year.

He said North Korean animal health officials and farms do not kill animals even if they are sick.

Wild animals can spread the disease

African swine fever spreads easily through contact with infected animals, animal waste and contaminated¹² substances such as food, clothing and vehicles.

The 248-kilometer border between North and South Korea is the most heavily secured in the world. However, South Korean officials and experts say wild pigs could still enter in and out of North Korea by swimming across rivers.

Cho said heavy rains from a powerful ocean storm in September likely caused contaminated soil and water from North Korea to enter the South. Insects and rats could also spread the virus, he said.

Whatever the source of the South Korean outbreaks, experts say controlling movements of wild pigs is very important.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

herd⁵ –n. a group of animals that live or are kept together

annihilate⁸ –v. to destroy completely

contaminate¹¹ –v. to cause something to become dirty or to carry something harmful

1 hog   

n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占

参考例句：

• He is greedy like a hog.他像猪一样贪婪。
• Drivers who hog the road leave no room for other cars.那些占着路面的驾驶员一点余地都不留给其他车辆。

2 hogs   

n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人

参考例句：

• 'sounds like -- like hogs grunting. “像——像是猪发出的声音。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• I hate the way he hogs down his food. 我讨厌他那副狼吞虎咽的吃相。 来自辞典例句

3 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

4 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

5 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

6 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

7 slaughtered   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The invading army slaughtered a lot of people. 侵略军杀了许多人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hundreds of innocent civilians were cruelly slaughtered. 数百名无辜平民遭残杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 annihilate   

v.使无效；毁灭；取消

参考例句：

• Archer crumpled up the yellow sheet as if the gesture could annihilate the news it contained.阿切尔把这张黄纸揉皱，好象用这个动作就会抹掉里面的消息似的。
• We should bear in mind that we have to annihilate the enemy.我们要把歼敌的重任时刻记在心上。

9 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

10 cooperative   

adj.有合作意向的，合作的；n.合作社（企业）等

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• We decided to set up a cooperative.我们决定开办一家合作社。

11 contaminate   

v.弄污，弄脏，毒害，传染，染污

参考例句：

• All over the world,oil spills regularly contaminate coasts.在世界各地，油溢出物经常污染着海岸。
• The sources of organisms that may contaminate the wound are numerous.可以沾染伤口的细菌来源是很多的。

12 contaminated   

把…弄脏，污染( contaminate的过去式 )； 玷污，毒害，腐蚀（人的思想或品德）

参考例句：

• The drinking water has become contaminated with lead. 饮用水被铅污染了。
• The site was found to be contaminated by radioactivity. 发现此地受放射线污染。