Professor Of IPB Suspects PMK Outbreak Comes From Indian Meat Imports

JAKARTA - Professor of IPB Prof. Dwi Andreas Santosa suspects that the outbreak of mouth and nail disease (PMK) that is currently spreading comes from imported buffalo meat from India.

"My guess is that the cause of the first wave is the opening of the door to import beef from India, which at that time was not free of PMK," he told reporters, Friday, January 31.

Dwi Andreas Santoso's allegation that the PMK outbreak originated from India was quite reasonable.

The reason is, Indonesia has been declared free of PMK since 1990, while India has not been free of PMK.

"Yes, that's because Indonesia opened the door to import buffalo meat from India. India is a country that has not been free of PMK. So, my guess is that it is likely to come from there. Although there are various opinions, I think from there," he said. According to him, the impact of this outbreak is very significant for farmers, with a decrease in the dairy cattle population reaching around 80,000.

"Yes, that's because Indonesia opened the door to import buffalo meat from India. India is a country that has not been free of PMK. So, my guess is that it will most likely come from there. Although there are various opinions, there are various others, but my guess is from there," he said.

According to him, the impact of this outbreak is very significant for farmers, with a decrease in the dairy cattle population reaching around 80,000.

"From 580,000 dairy cows in 2021, the number will drop to 507,000 in 2022," said Dwi. He hopes that the Indonesian government will stop imports of meat from countries that have not been free from PMK.

"From 580,000 dairy cows in 2021, the number will drop to 507,000 in 2022," said Dwi.

He hopes that the Indonesian government will stop imports of meat from countries that have not been free from PMK.

"Yes, yes. If Indonesia wants to go that way, that's how it is. So it doesn't import from countries that have not been free of PMK." said Dwi.

Senada dengan Prof Dwi Andreas, Ketua Paguyuban Pedagang Sapi dan Daging Segar (PPSDS) Jawa Timur Muthowif mengatakan, merebaknya wabah PMK diduga berawal dari daging kerbau impor asal India yang masuk sejak tahun 2016.

“Sebenarnya Gubernur Jatim Soekarwo saat itu sudah melarang adanya daging kerbau impor. Tapi di lapangan justru diperjualbelikan secara bebas. Ini yang kami khawatirkan, karena PMK ini membuat kerugian ekonomi yang cukup besar, meski kala itu sempat ada penolakan, namun impor daging kerbau asal India ini tetap berjalan hingga saat ini," katanya.

In line with Prof. Dwi Andreas, Chairman of the East Java Cattle and Fresh Meat Traders Association (PPSDS) Muthowif said the outbreak of the PMK outbreak was thought to have started from imported buffalo from India which had entered since 2016.

"Actually, the Governor of East Java, Soekarwo, at that time had banned imported buffalo meat. But in the field it was traded freely. This is what we are worried about, because this PMK caused considerable economic losses, even though at that time there was a rejection, but the import of buffalo meat from India continues to this day," he said.