Bantul, Yogyakarta, The Agriculture Ministry and related stakeholders have collaborated to organize foot-and-mouth disease vaccinations for Depok 45 Farm Group in Parangtritis Village, Kretek Sub-district, Bantul District, Yogyakarta Province.

The stakeholders include the Yogyakarta and Bantul administrations.

“This is 2023 National Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) measure of control and handling, which is the firsthand directive from the central government, the Agriculture Ministry through the Directorate General of Farming and Animal Health,” Head of the Yogyakarta Farming and Food Security Office Sugeng Purwanto said in Bantul on Saturday.

As part of FMD handling, Yogyakarta has also conducted conditional slaughter in all its areas, he added.

He said that the latest vaccination has been conducted simultaneously across Indonesia. It kicked off with a symbolic handover of aid by the government as a manifestation of its concern over the situation plaguing the region’s farming sector.

He informed that in Yogyakarta, 14,600 farm animals have been infected with FMD. However, they account for only 1.6 percent of the total population of farm animals in Yogyakarta, which is pegged at 900 thousand.

“And thank God, of some 14 thousand of the FMD cases, the recovery rate was above eight thousand. And for conditional slaughter to reach zero cases, it has been (pursued) in all districts on a massive scale,” he said.

This initiative is expected to address the FMD situation thoroughly in 2023.

Head of Bantul District Abdul Halim Muslih commended the ministry, the Yogyakarta Veterinarian Agency, and the Yogyakarta Farming and Food Security Office for collaborating with the district to address the farming and agriculture issue, and said he expected such collaboration to be maintained.

Muslih noted that Indonesia was struck by the outbreak one year ago, with infections spreading rapidly, even though the nation had been declared FMD-free in 1986.

“Therefore, I commend the implementation of the FMD vaccination for livestock in Bantul,” he added.

He said that agriculture is still a priority sector in Bantul besides the industrial and tourism sectors as many Bantul residents are engaged in it.

“As the leading sector in Bantul, the government is consistently increasing the budget both from the center, Yogyakarta, and Bantul District, so that the livestock farming sector can increase, both in terms of progress, independence, and modernity,” he added.

Source: Antara News