Ministry Of Agriculture Starts Production Of Mouth And Nail Disease Vaccines

ILLUSTRATION / Veterinarians prepare to give vaccine injections to cattle with indications of mouth and nail disease (FMD) at the animal market in Sibreh Village, Sibreh District, Aceh Besar District, Aceh, Tuesday (11/5/2022). BETWEEN PHOTOS/Ampelsa

JAKARTA - The Center for Veterinary Farma (Pusvetma) of the Ministry of Agriculture has begun to produce a vaccine for mouth and nail disease (PMK) in livestock to tackle the disease outbreak in Indonesia.

"I witnessed for myself that the development process for the production of PMK vaccine is currently underway since the Minister instructed Pusvetma to reproduce the PMK vaccine," said Head of the Ministry of Agriculture's Public Relations and Public Information Bureau, Kuntoro Boga Andri, in a written statement quoted by Antara, Saturday, May 28.

Kuntoro said Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) had directly instructed the Director General of Livestock and Animal Health that Pusvetma immediately produce vaccines after the emergence of cases of FMD in East Java at the end of last April.

Kuntoro said that with effective vaccination efforts, strict, systematic and sustainable control measures have been proven to eradicate FMD in most countries to become FMD-free.

Vaccination is a solution and hope for farmers throughout Indonesia. With the FMD vaccine, it is hoped that Indonesia can be cured soon and become a FMD-free country.

For information, Indonesia's ability to produce FMD vaccines began in 1952 and carried out a mass vaccination program since 1964. Indonesia has been free from FMD since 1986 and has been recognized in ASEAN since 1987, as well as internationally recognized by the World Animal Health Organization (Office International). des Epizooties-OIE) in 1990.

Meanwhile, Head of Center for Veterinary Medicine at the Ministry of Agriculture, Edy Budi Susila, explained that the process of developing PMK vaccine production by Pusvetma had been going on since the Minister of Agriculture instructed the production of PMK vaccine again.

He explained that the process of developing PMK vaccine production by the Veterinary Farma Center (Pusvetma) had previously been carried out to free Indonesia from oral and nail diseases in 1983-1986. Based on this experience, he believes that Pusvetma can develop domestic vaccines to control FMD in the future.

Edy said that the vaccine production process at Pusvetma began now that it had entered isolate purification and the sixth phase.

"The process of making this PMK vaccine uses tissue culture technology with BKH 21 cells. The vaccine is inactive and formulated with adjuvants," he said.

Edy said the development of FMD vaccine production requires a process because Pusvetma previously did not produce vaccines for the disease since Indonesia was declared free of FMD without vaccination by the World Animal Health Agency (OIE) in 1990.

With the various challenges that exist, Edy ensures that the Pusvetma Team will be able to develop the vaccine production needed even though it requires various adjustments. "Pusvetma will maximize the strength of Human Resources (HR) and existing equipment in Pusvetma's vaccine production facilities," he said.