Report: Foot-and-mouth disease spreading in South Korea

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean officials confirmed additional cases of foot-and-mouth disease despite nationwide quarantine efforts, the Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday.

Two milk cows at a dairy farm in the central city of Cheonan tested positive for the disease, the news agency said, citing officials in South Chungcheong province. The government ordered the slaughter of all 50 animals on the farm to stop the disease's spread, according to Yonhap.

Food and mouth disease is a highly communicable disease that affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats, deer and other animals, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is characterized by a fever and blister-like lesions and erosions on the animal.

Investigators detected the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the country on November 28 on a pig farm in the southern city of Andong. The disease has since spread to areas around Seoul in the northern part of the country.

More than 643,000 livestock have been ordered culled -- or slaughtered -- so far across the country, Yonhap said, with at least 67 confirmed cases of the disease so far.

The toll of affected livestock is at the country's highest level since 2002, when 160,000 were slaughtered, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries confirmed. Livestock markets have been closed across the country while the government oversees animal vaccinations.

The ministers of public administration and agriculture issued a statement last week saying it was safe to continue eating meat, noting that foot-and-mouth disease does not spread to humans.