South Korea has confirmed three additional cases of foot-and-mouth disease in the country's central region, after initial vaccination of all livestock in the country has been completed, the government said Saturday.

   The additional cases bring the total number of officially confirmed FMD outbreaks to 144, after animals started showing symptoms in late November, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.

   The latest outbreak comes after no confirmed case was tallied by the central government during the Lunar New Year's holiday that started on Wednesday.

   The disease has forced Seoul to cull and bury 3 million heads of cattle, pigs, goats and deer with damage estimated at more than 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion).

   After conventional quarantine methods of culling animals failed, the farm ministry moved to vaccinate livestock from Dec. 25 onwards. There are some 3 million heads of cattle and 10 million pigs in the country.

   The latest outbreak is the most severe in the country's history. South Korea reported its first FMD case in 2000 and then another one in 2002, followed by two smaller scale cases early last year. (Yonhap News)