The nation’s first confirmed case of lumpy skin disease, an infectious disease of cattle, was detected at a farm in Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture, the Fukuoka prefectural government said Monday. Further infections were detected at other farms in the same city.

Based on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases in Livestock Law, the prefectural government ordered the vaccination of cattle at 50 farms located within a 20-kilometer radius of the farm where the disease was first detected.

According to the prefectural government, cattle infected with the disease develop fever and nodules on their skin. The mortality rate in cattle is around 1% to 5%, and they can be shipped after they have recovered. People cannot be infected by eating meat or drinking milk from infected cattle.

The prefectural government received a report from the veterinarian who examined a cow on Nov. 5, and an examination by a central government agency on the following day confirmed the infection.

As of Monday, dozens of infected cattle had been confirmed at eight farms in the city. The prefectural government plans to have about 5,000 cattle vaccinated by the end of the current fiscal year.

-In Association with ANN