The provincial government of Central Java will collaborate with the Indonesian Association of Veterinarians (PDHI) and universities to accelerate the administration of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine to farm animals.

“In the acceleration (of FMD vaccination), the problem lies in the number of vaccinators. There are inputs. There is PDHI that is ready to help. Later, we will coordinate because PDHI has branch offices in districts and cities,” the regional secretary of Central Java, Sumarno, informed here on Wednesday.

According to him, the insufficient number of vaccinators has posed an obstacle to the process of vaccinating farm animals.

Therefore, besides the veterinarian association, the government will also involve veterinary medicine students from universities as vaccinators, Sumarno informed.

The students will undergo an assessment first to ensure that they are capable of conducting the vaccination, he added.

Central Java has received a total of 842 thousand FMD vaccine doses from the central government, he informed. Of them, 504 thousand doses have been administered to farm animals, especially cows and buffaloes.

So far, the vaccination has been provided to 56 percent of the targeted farm animals in Central Java, he said.

However, based on the total population of farm animals, the coverage has reached only 23 percent.

According to him, the FMD vaccine doses that Central Java has received must be immediately administered to farm animals before the receipt of additional doses, in accordance with the request of the FMD Handling Task Force.

To curb FMD transmission, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a program for vaccinating livestock from Sidoarjo district, East Java, on June 14, 2022.

Earlier, the FMD Handling Task Force had set the target of making 24 provinces free from FMD transmission by November 2022.

An official from the task force, Ary Laksmana Widjadja, said in a written statement received on October 13 that the 24 provinces are expected to be free from FMD cases because, in November, the G20 Summit will be held in Bali.

Then, by December, herd immunity is expected to be formed among animals that are vulnerable to FMD, he added.

Source: Antara News