Minister Of Agriculture: There Are 180 Thousand Cattle Affected By FMD, Less Than One Percent Of The Total Population

Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo/PHOTO: Bali Provincial Government Public Relations

BULELENG - Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo said the number of cases of the Mouth and Nail Disease Outbreak (PMK) had reached 180,000 in a number of regions in Indonesia.

"We have 18 million heads (cows in Indonesia) affected by 180 thousand, less than one percent (of the population)," said Yasin Limpo, in Sumberklampok Village, Gerokgak District, Buleleng Regency, Bali, Tuesday, June 21.

According to him, FMD outbreaks are all over Asia and are growing, especially in Africa and Arabia. In Indonesia, PMK cases exist in 19 provinces with 169 districts and cities.

"But not all of them. Maybe only one village. For example, in Bengkulu, only 9 (cows) were affected," he added.

The Ministry of Agriculture applies a village zone basis with areas where PMK cases are found to be designated as red zones.

"The base zone that we apply is not a country base or province, but we set a village. All red zones affected by the outbreak are locked down, there should be no mutation of live animals from there, unless they have been slaughtered," he said.

The government continued, the Minister of Agriculture has made a number of efforts to overcome the outbreak. One of them is by bringing 3 million PMK vaccines.

"Each region must detect and report, we carry out tiered monitoring to the province, every three days we take the report," he said.

"There are vaccines from several countries and from the FAO that we have distributed, these are emergency vaccines and will continue. The first phase is as many as 800,000 which have been distributed," he said.