For The Sake Of Needs In The Country, Indonesia Imports 3 Million Doses Of PMK Vaccine

Illustration of FMD vaccination in cattle. (Antara/Mohammad Ayudh)

JAKARTA - Coordinator of the Expert Team for the Task Force for Handling PMK Prof Wiku Adisasmito revealed that the government has imported three million doses of the oral and nail disease (PMK) vaccine to deal with the outbreak in the country.

"The government has imported three million doses of vaccines whose types have been adapted to the serotypes of the FMD virus in Indonesia and have gone through a conformity test before being distributed," he said at a press conference on the development of the handling of FMD which was followed online from Jakarta, Tuesday 19 July.

According to him, PMK vaccines that have been approved for import include vaccine products from France, China, Brazil and Argentina.

"Currently, the government is also trying to develop a domestically made FMD vaccine to meet the needs of handling and controlling FMD in Indonesia," he said, according to Antara.

He added that the government distributed imported PMK vaccines in two stages.

According to him, in the first stage the government distributed 800,000 doses of vaccine and until July 18, 2022, had used it to vaccinate FMD on 540,978 farm animals.

In the second phase, the government distributed 2.2 million doses of FMD vaccine and the distribution is still ongoing.

Wiku said that on July 18, 2022, there were three provinces with high PMK vaccination coverage, namely East Java, which had vaccinated 24,746 livestock.

Furthermore, Bali has vaccinated 3,559 livestock, and Central Java, which has vaccinated 3,384 livestock.

However, according to him, there are still provinces whose PMK vaccination coverage is below 25 percent.

"We appeal to other provinces to be more aggressive in carrying out vaccination activities against FMD susceptible animals," he said.

Wiku also appealed to provincial, city and district governments that have not yet reported the coverage of PMK vaccinations to immediately submit reports through the national animal health information system.