PMK Makes Farmers Scream But Commission IV Still Meets Lack Of Disinfectant Officers And Facilities At The Border

JAKARTA - The chairman of Commission IV of the DPR Sub-Department requested the implementation of animal quarantine in the field to increase the prevention of the spread of foot and mouth disease (PMK) in livestock. How to increase the number of officers and disinfectant facilities.

The Sub-dept. in the RDP together with the ranks of the Ministry of Agriculture at the Parliament Building in Jakarta, Monday, June 27, admitted that they found quarantine officers and minimal disinfectant facilities at the border to prevent the spread of the FMD outbreak.

"For example, when Commission IV made a working visit to East Java, it was found that the control information in the context of preventing the spread of mouth and nail disease was inadequate. How is it possible that at the entrance there are only two quarantine officers and two hand sprayers, so trucks can be used as trucks?" Those who transport the cows only have two hand sprayers," said Subin, quoted from Antara.

The Sub-Department also highlighted the availability and distribution of PMK vaccines as the main effort to prevent the transmission of the disease. The Sub-Department requested that the procurement and distribution of vaccines be accelerated.

The Ministry of Agriculture has ordered 3 million doses of the FMD vaccine from France and only 800,000 doses have arrived for the first phase. Meanwhile, the remaining 2.2 million are still in the process pending the availability of the budget. The Ministry of Agriculture said the 3 million doses of the vaccine were emergency vaccines, in the future the vaccines will be produced domestically.

However, the Sub-Department assessed that Indonesia is not yet ready to produce PMK vaccines for the entire population of ruminants in Indonesia. He said the results of his working visit to the Fatma Veterinary Center of the Ministry of Agriculture in East Java revealed that it could only produce 1 million PMK vaccines in a year.

This, said Subin, would not be sufficient with the need to inject three doses of livestock for the 18 million cattle population in Indonesia.

The sub-dept. also wants the Rp 4.4 trillion fund disbursed by the government for the handling of the FMD outbreak to be detailed in advance regarding its work plan.

The Sub-dept. also appreciated the formation of the PMK Task Force which was commanded by the National Disaster Management Agency. "Later, if it is taken over by the National Disaster Management Agency, it will be different again. There, it is firm, directly under the president, what concrete steps must be taken," said the Sub-Department.