The U.N. says recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in South Korea and Japan are a cause for serious concern.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday that all countries around the world are deemed susceptible to the threat of foot-and-mouth disease, given the current situation in Korea and Japan.

The FAO said it is worried because the rigorous biosecurity measures in place in the two countries were overwhelmed, pointing to a recent, large-scale infection in source areas, very probably in the Far East.

Warning against a global spread, the FAO said the estimated losses from the 2001 transcontinental outbreak of FMD to agriculture, livestock trade and tourism were more than 12 billion dollars in the U.K. alone.

It said it is rare for outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease to be reported in countries that had been declared free of the disease such as Korea and Japan.

It urged all countries to review their preventive and quarantine measures against the disease.

Cloven-hoofed animals are vulnerable to the disease, which does not affect humans.