BEIJING, Nov. 18 (AP) -- Two new outbreaks of foot and mouth disease have sickened cattle in southwest and northwest China, the Agriculture Ministry said Saturday.

Thirteen cows and 72 pigs were slaughtered in a district of Chongqing municipality, once part of Sichuan province, and 181 cows had been slaughtered in northwest Gansu province, the ministry's Web site said.

The cows were stricken with the Asia 1 strain of the disease, the site said.

China has periodic outbreaks of the disease, with recent ones reported in Qinghai province in the northwest in September, and another in Gansu in August, in which 607 sheep, cattle and pigs were slaughtered.

Foot and mouth is not known to be a threat to humans, but it is highly contagious among other mammals. The disease affects cows, sheep, goats and other cloven-footed animals, causing blisters on the mouth and feet.