Indonesia to produce vaccines to contain FMD re-emergence 

The foot-and-mouth disease is damaging its livestock industry and affecting market price stability.

According to data from the National FMD Task Force, more than 20 provinces in Indonesia are hit by the foot-and-mouth disease.

The disease is one of the world’s worst animal plagues, with more than 460,000 livestock animals infected and more than 4,700 related animal deaths.

The Southeast Asian country had been free of FMD since 1986, a status recognised internationally by the World Organisation for Animal Health in 1990, but it re-emerged with first cases confirmed in the province of East Java in April.

Indonesia’s neighboring countries, including Australia and New Zealand, were concerned and imposed travel restrictions on their citizens since the FMD can spread by mechanical transfer via fomites apart from by direct contact with animals, animal products, as well as by the airborne route.

At present, Indonesia is trying to reduce the spread of the viral disease by temporarily providing impacted livestock farmers with imported vaccines, medicines, antibiotics and veterinary consultation service.

This is while developing its own FMD vaccine whose initial massive production is expected in September.

The Task Force chief Suharyanto said on Thursday that the government had demanded the local veterinary vaccine producer Pusvetma to produce 35.3 million doses by the end of next year.

 “We think this will fulfill the domestic demand,” said Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses one name only.

Earlier, head of the Veterinary Farma Center (Pusvetma) Edy Budi Susila said the development of the vaccine had entered the purification stage, and that Pusvetma was expected to produce 200,000 doses when the vaccine was launched.

He expressed optimism that Pusvetma will be able to produce one million doses by the end of this year and is ready to cooperate with private vaccine producers in a bid to boost the output.