An outbreak also occurred in the neighboring city of Siheung, Gyeonggi Province... ‘Tension’ due to detailed surveillance, etc.
Expert: “It is difficult to explain why Incheon is not infected… Control measures must be strengthened.”
(Incheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Hwang Jeong-hwan = While damage from pine wilt disease is spreading nationwide, it has been confirmed that there has not been a single case of infection in Incheon for 38 years since the first outbreak in the country.
According to the Korea Forest Service on the 5th, the number of trees infected with pine wilt disease nationwide was 1,772,985 from June of last year to May of last year.
Pine wilt disease first occurred in Geumjeongsan Mountain in Busan in 1988 and has spread throughout the country, but there have been no cases of infection in Incheon so far.
Among the 16 metropolitan cities and provinces across the country, infected trees occurred in all 15 cities and provinces except Incheon.
Pine wilt disease can spread naturally through insect vectors such as the pine warbler and northern warbler or by artificial movement of infected trees.
There is currently no way to treat infected pine trees, so if they become infected, they will die 100% of the time.
According to the Forestry and Forestry Statistics Yearbook prepared by the Korea Forest Service last year, as of 2020, pine forests account for 7,529 ha, or 19.1%, of Incheon's total forest area of 39,373 ha.
Pine forests refer to pine trees, sea pine trees, and pine trees that can be susceptible to pine wilt disease, and the proportion of pine forests in Incheon is 8.4 percentage points lower than the national average of 27.5%.
Although the relatively small proportion of pine forests may have had an impact, the exact reason why pine wilt disease did not occur in Incheon has not been identified.
However, with the first outbreak of pine wilt disease in Jeongwang-dong, Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, which is adjacent to Incheon, in April, Incheon cannot be at ease either.
Accordingly, Incheon City conducted detailed surveillance focusing on some areas of Namdong-gu, close to Siheung, but no cases of infection have been confirmed to date.
Incheon Grand Park Office and Seoul National Forest Management Office inspected 73 dead or suspect trees in the Incheon area this year, and none of them were found to be infected with pine wilt disease.
Incheon City is also conducting management to prevent the introduction of infected trees from other regions.
According to the current law, the 'Pine Production Confirmation Table' that is filled out when pine trees from other regions are moved is thoroughly checked.
In addition, we are visiting lumber producers and landscaping companies to distribute notices to prevent the introduction of infected trees.
Experts said that we should not be complacent just because Incheon has been free of infection for a long time, and suggested that thorough surveillance is needed.
Nam Young-woo, a forestry researcher at the National Institute of Forest Science, said, "It is difficult to clearly explain why pine wilt disease has not occurred in Incheon so far," and added, "Incheon also has environmental conditions sufficient for the outbreak, so we need to pay more attention to surveillance."
Researcher Nam added, “We must pay attention to control measures, such as administering preventive tree injections mainly to forests that need to be protected, and quickly check for infection when dead trees appear,” and added, “We must also thoroughly manage factors that may cause the disease to spread artificially, such as inflow from other regions.”
