Livestock Entered Pangkalpinang Babel Now Quarantined 14 Days

A number of cattle cattle in the middle of the Medan-Banda Aceh road in Krueng Sabee District, Aceh Jaya, in May 2019. (Antara)

BABEL - Every farm animal that enters Pangkalpinang City will be quarantined for 14 days. The local Agricultural Quarantine Center (BKP) applies this provision to prevent the entry of the mouth and nail disease (PMK) virus.

"Currently, the importation of cattle, buffalo and goats is tightened to prevent FMD," said Head of the Pangkalpinang BKP Saifuddin Zuhri in Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung (Babel) Islands Province, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, May 11.

He said the tightening of livestock traffic was due to the emergence of the PMK epidemic that infected cattle, buffalo and goats in Gresik, Lamongan, Sidoarjo and Mojokerto Regencies, East Java Province.

"Two weeks ago or before East Java was declared a FMD outbreak, we had 223 cows imported from Java and these cattle have been released to the public," he said.

According to him, prior to the release of these cattle, BPK had conducted a physical examination and documents according to the SOP, to ensure the cattle were healthy and did not have infectious diseases to other livestock that would interfere with the development of cattle farming in this area.

"At that time, we did not find any symptoms of FMD in livestock that entered through the Pangkalbalam Port," he added.

He stated that with the FMD outbreak found in East Java, the government banned the import of livestock from areas where the disease was spreading.

"We refer to the letter from the Head of the Central Agricultural Quarantine Agency, we take action by quarantining for 14 days livestock from outside the area, to ensure that the cattle have no symptoms or have contracted the PMK virus," he concluded.