Barantan Suspends Cattle Imports From Australia Infected With LSD

ILLUSTRATION/DOC PHOTO BETWEEN

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Agriculture through the Agricultural Quarantine Agency (Barantan) has suspended imports of cattle from four farm facilities in Australia after clinically detected the disease of Lumpy Skin Diseases (LSD) in cattle.

"This suspension is carried out up to the results of further investigations into the findings of LSD. Live cow exports from Australia can still run from 56 farms or premiums out of a total of 60 registered," said Head of Barantan Bambang as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, August 1.

Bambang explained that the findings regarding LSD disease in imported cows from Australia stemmed from the quarantine of the results of document and physical inspections on board by the Tanjung Priok Agricultural Quarantine Officer, at Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta from May 25 to July 26, 2023.

Then the officer gave a special sign to imported cows showing clinical symptoms for further sampling shortly after unloading from the conveyance.

From the results of laboratory tests, LSD was detected positive and immediate action was taken in the form of conditional cuts supervised by the Quarantine Veterinary. We found findings of LSD clinical symptoms in imported cows continue to increase, so we decided to suspend imports from the four facilities," he continued.

After confirming these clinical findings, Bambang said that his party immediately coordinated with the Australian government through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) to investigate LSD findings on four suspended farms.

We are also both involved in this problem. It could be that this incident caused it to come from Indonesia, but we also need this suspicion to come from there. So that the information we provide quickly becomes a positive material that we hope Australia will immediately explore so that it does not develop widely there," he explained.

Although it still requires further investigation, Bambang strongly suspects that the transmission of LSD disease occurs in Australia due to the incubation period of diseases that often attack cows and buffalo is quite natural and even reaches five weeks.

The virus can last 28 days on the melting of the mouth and nose and 33 days on the keropeng. Meanwhile, the duration of sending cows from Australia to Indonesia only takes a maximum of 1 week.

"We really believe that there is a potential for it to come from there. So we really hope that if this incident is infected before the entry into Indonesia, it will also be a correction for us to be more careful in order to prevent the cause of the spread of this disease," he said.

"But when this really happens from Australia, we hope, I think input from Indonesia is also very good for farmers in Australia to immediately mitigate and take control measures so that it does not spread to other pharmaceuticals," he said.

As for the Barantan automation system data, IQFAST was recorded from Belawan Sea Port, Tanjung Priok, Lampung, Cilacap and Soekarno Hatta Airport, the number of imported cattle from Australia in 2022 was 303,867 and 153,384 for the period January 1 to July 31, 2023.

Especially for Australia, there are 60 farms that supply cattle to Indonesia.

With the suspension of shipments from four farms, currently only 56 farms are still allowed to send cows to Indonesia because they are not indicated to have LSD.