Government Forms PMK Task Force For Handling Mouth And Nail Diseases In Livestock, BNPB Reveals Its Tasks Like The COVID-19 Task Force

Veterinarians examine cows to prevent the spread of an outbreak of the mouth and nail disease (FMD) virus. (Antara-Rivan Awal L)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Lt. Gen. Suharyanto said the government would soon form a Task Force (Satgas) for Handling Mouth and Nail Diseases (PMK). Suharyanto said the PMK Task Force would use the same method as handling COVID-19.

He conveyed this during an online meeting with elements of the central government and local government TNI, Polri, veterinarians, animal husbandry experts to veterinary drug associations who will be tasked with starting from data collection and prevention.

"The task force will also support the development of supporting alternative therapies such as convalescent plasma. This is a matter of discussion, because anti-virus has not been found," he said.

Suharyanto added that the formation of the PMK Task Force was in line with President Joko Widodo's order, which he knew would be issued this afternoon.

The PMK Task Force is integrated from elements of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Home Affairs, Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, BNPB, as well as elements of the TNI and Polri.

Suharyanto said, until now, there is no specific treatment or antiviral to treat FMD.

So that the latest thing that can be done, he said, is to increase the immune system of livestock exposed to FMD. Likewise, giving vaccines to livestock that have not been infected.

"So we imitate at the beginning of the implementation of the handling of COVID-19, at that time there was no vaccine so that the recovered cows were taken for blood to be injected into sick cows. Hopefully convalescent plasma therapy is as we have noticed when planting COVID-19 really there can be results, good and effective," he said.

Furthermore, Suharyanto asked the Regional Heads to comply with the distribution of the PMK vaccine of 1.8 million doses prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture for 19 affected provinces.

This is so that livestock, especially cows, are still healthy so they don't get infected with PMK. According to him, the PMK outbreak is the same as COVID-19, it involves strategic matters and greatly affects the state of the economy and people's lives.

"Hopefully we have experience in handling COVID-19, which we are still implementing, we already have a model for handling it. Hopefully this can also be applied effectively and efficiently when handling oral and nail diseases," said Suharyanto. .

Suharyanto also appealed for the formation of the PMK Task Force to be a reference for the regions to develop an organization and regional PMK Task Force. Especially in areas where there are no cases of FMD in livestock.

"We have to remain vigilant and careful because the experience from two provinces to 19 provinces is very fast. So we don't expect all of these provinces in Indonesia to be affected by mouth and nail disease. Two thirds of the time, there are almost 15 provinces that haven't yet, please 15 provinces are expected not to be affected," he said.