Appreciate the Establishment of the PMK Task Force
By : Edwin Harahap )*
The government moved quickly to prevent the spread of Mouth and Nail Disease (PMK) through the establishment of a Task Force (Satgas). This step needs to be appreciated by the community as a form of controlling disease outbreaks that attack livestock.
The recent outbreak of PMK cases that infect a number of cattle is indeed very disturbing. Moreover, Muslims will soon be holding Eid al-Adha in which there is a suggestion to sacrifice. Therefore, the Government immediately formed a Task Force to handle the PMK.
The rapid formation of the Task Force immediately received great appreciation from the Chairman of the Indonesian Veterinary Association (PHDI) of South Sumatra, dr. Jafrizal because he considered that there was indeed a very serious effort from the Government to be able to immediately deal with the FMD outbreak that was happening.
dr. Jafrizal also stated that due to the rapid nature of its spread, it was necessary to speed up the handling of the Government, including one of them by deploying the Task Forces that had been formed. Of course, with the presence of these Task Forces, people in areas that are still difficult to access medicines for their livestock can be greatly helped.
Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Suharyanto as Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said that with the formation of the PMK Task Force consisting of various elements ranging from the Central Government, Regional Government, TNI, Polri, Veterinarians, Animal Husbandry Experts and the Veterinary Drug Association, they were able to continue to strive so that the FMD epidemic does not continue to spread.
The reason is that it is known that there is still no specific treatment or antiviral that is really effective for dealing with this FMD, but at least all parties continue to try to be able to increase the immune system of the livestock by giving animal vaccines before they are infected. In addition, there are alternative therapies such as the use of convalescent plasma which will be more efficient.
For provinces where there may still be no FMD outbreak identified, the Head of BNPB strongly appealed to a Regional Task Force to be formed immediately because it turns out that the transmission of FMD is fast enough so that it can be handled much more effectively first.
Appreciation for the formation of the PMK Task Force was also given by IPB through the Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Deni Novianto who assessed that the Government, in particular the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, had taken very appropriate steps and actions.
In line with what has been said by the Head of BNPB, the Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical admitted that integration of various fields at once in the Task Force is indeed a very mandatory thing to do. In addition, he also provided several other recommendations that the Government could implement, particularly the Task Force.
These recommendations include the application of biosecurity, increasing livestock immunity so that it can prevent transmission so that it remains under control if livestock have good immunity, acceleration in the procurement of FMD vaccines and production of FMD vaccines in Indonesia. This is so that our country is not too dependent on vaccine production from other countries. Then there must be stricter supervision and the importation of live animals and animal products from abroad/imported procurement because it cannot be denied that if the demand for meat in the market is large, then stock fulfillment must remain available and its safety guaranteed.
Member of Commission B of the North Sumatra DPRD, Ir Tangkas Manimpan Tobing also expressed his appreciation for the quick steps taken by the Government in an effort to overcome this FMD outbreak by directly forming a Task Force team. According to him, this will be very helpful for farmers who are currently in need of drugs and vaccines to ward off the FMD virus that infects their favorite animals.
The Indonesian government is very serious about efforts to eradicate this FMD outbreak. It’s not just the formation of the Task Force that deserves appreciation, but also how the efforts to be able to continue to find effective drugs and vaccines to experiments using convalescent plasma also need to be applauded. The existence of the Task Force is also expected to prevent the spread of PMK in Indonesia.
)* The author is a contributor to the Pertiwi Institute
