1,500 Doses Are Pocketed, Starting Thursday, June 23, Livestock In Central Java Will Be Vaccinated Against PMK

Vaccination against foot and mouth disease (PMK) for livestock in Central Java Province will start Thursday, June 23. (Between)

JAVA - Vaccination against foot and mouth disease (PMK) for livestock in Central Java Province will be implemented gradually on Thursday, June 23.

"The day after tomorrow, maybe we can get it sooner, we warn you as soon as possible because this is for prevention," said Head of the Central Java Province Livestock and Animal Health Service Agus Wariyanto in Semarang, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, June 21.

A total of 1,500 doses of vaccine given to Central Java from the Ministry of Agriculture are prioritized for healthy livestock, which are in breeding centers and dairy cows.

He explained that the PMK vaccination that was carried out was an emergency vaccine stage because mass vaccination would be boosted at the end of August 2022.

Before being distributed to regencies/cities, the vaccine is currently stored in a refrigerated room facility with a capacity of 200-500 thousand doses.

"The number of vaccines is certainly not enough, but it must be applied immediately, as we go along. We have just allocated this, at least tomorrow we will order the selected districts to take them because not all of them," he said.

According to him, the reason for choosing the vaccination target has been through a study, where for dairy cows it is a priority because FMD greatly affects milk production, while for beef cattle, local cattle or Ongole hybrids (PO), and buffaloes tend to be more disease resistant.

Meanwhile, PMK vaccination is prioritized for areas that have a high population of dairy cattle and the total population of dairy cattle in Central Java reaches 141,395 heads.

Areas with high dairy cattle populations include Boyolali Regency, Semarang Regency, Salatiga City, and Klaten Regency.

For livestock that have already been exposed to FMD, Agus said that they must be rehabilitated before receiving vaccination. "Later, there will be special officers, in the district also prepared. We have a supervision team to strengthen, we calculate whether the district is ready or not. FMD vaccination must be programmed and not piled up and must be immediately, while waiting from the center," he said.

Based on data from the Central Java Health Service Office on Monday, June 20, 23,487 cattle suspected of having FMD symptoms and 300 of them tested positive for FMD after going through a medical test.

From the number of livestock suspected of PMK, as many as 20,254 tails received treatment. From the procedure, 4,949 animals were declared better, the remaining cases were 18,163, 259 cattle were slaughtered and 116 died.

Meanwhile, the total livestock population at risk of FMD reached 8,286,534 consisting of 2,016,564 cows, 58,190 buffalo, 3,790,059 goats, 2,333,425 sheep, and 88,296 pigs.