By: Keisha Samira )*
President Jokowi has instructed the Minister of Agriculture and other government officials to take action to anticipate Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in livestock which has begun to become an epidemic in East Java. This quick and responsive reaction is expected to anticipate the spread of the disease to other areas in Indonesia.
In the last few weeks, there has been a spike in foot and mouth disease (FMD) in livestock in a number of areas in East Java. Several areas experienced PMK cases, including the Regencies of Gresik, Lamongan, Sidoarjo to Mojokerto, East Java. Indyah Aryani as the Head of the East Java Livestock Service stated that it turned out that the FMD outbreak first occurred in Gresik on April 28, 2022.
Then the FMD outbreak also spread to other districts/cities in East Java, namely on May 1, 2022 in Lamongan and Sidoarjo, and on May 3, 2022 in Mojokerto. The East Java Provincial Government also immediately acted by forming a number of integrated posts for handling FMD outbreaks in livestock. Including the case of an epidemic of nail and mouth disease, President Joko Widodo immediately took action.
President Jokowi immediately formed and deployed a Task Force (Satgas) to facilitate the process of handling the FMD outbreak. In addition, the President stated that it must be immediately ascertained in which areas the FMD outbreak has infected the animal so that appropriate action can be taken immediately. Therefore, the formation of a Task Force is an important thing to do so that it is clear who is responsible for handling the FMD outbreak.
Not only that, President Jokowi immediately coordinated with the Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo to be able to lock down certain areas that were already infected and indicated so that they could prevent a wider spread. This coordination was also directly discussed by the National Police Chief, General Listyo Sigit.
Lockdown is carried out to be able to monitor and also limit the mutation of livestock from one place to another, whether it occurs between regencies/cities, as well as between provinces. President Jokowi appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Police to really maintain conditions on the ground.
The Ministry of Agriculture has also actively carried out various prevention efforts so that the mouth and nail disease outbreak does not spread widely, namely tracing in districts that are considered to be infected with this outbreak. The laboratory used to carry out the tracing has been set up at the Wates Veterinary Center and the Veterinary Farma Center (Pusvetma) Surabaya.
Nasrullah as the Director General of Livestock and Animal Health explained, that at the beginning of the FMD outbreak, it was identified after a PCR examination was carried out. Suddenly his party immediately coordinated with the Governor of East Java, including the Regents of the four regions. Furthermore, there are several emergency steps that were immediately prepared as a form of handling, including culling livestock that were indeed confirmed positive for FMD, as well as providing education to all breeders regarding SOPs for controlling and preventing FMD for their livestock. Another thing to do is to prepare FMD vaccination for livestock.
It is appealed to the whole community to also participate in controlling the FMD outbreak by not trading cows in areas indicated by the FMD outbreak to be brought to areas where there are still no cases of FMD so that a clear zone localization can be formed immediately.
On another occasion, Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin gave directions to the entire community not to panic and not to worry about the mouth and nail disease outbreak that has infected the livestock. As stated in the statement, it turns out that the virus that infects farm animals is a special virus that is only found in animals and will rarely infect humans. Although it is highly contagious, the Minister of Health added that the transmission will only occur to other animals.
In this case, President Jokowi and all of his staff acted very quickly and precisely in the interests of the people so that the spread of this FMD outbreak did not spread widely and might have the potential to harm the community even more. The formation of the Task Force and also immediately implementing a regional lockdown is a smart strategy that has been carried out. With these various preventive measures, the spread of FMD can be stopped immediately.
)* The author is a contributor to Pertiwi Institute
