Jakarta. The vaccination rate for the foot-and-mouth disease that affects livestock has reached over 90 percent in the Blitar regency, East Java.

The Blitar government reported that its vaccination rate ranked fourth compared to other regencies in East Java -- just behind Malang, Tulungagung, and Pacitan.  Blitar’s farming agency head Toha Masuri said that the regency was home to 340,959 animals that were at risk of foot-and-mouth disease. They consist of cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and deer. 

According to Toha, the foot-and-mouth disease suddenly returned to Indonesia in April 2022 and spread to Blitar in June 2022. Blitar recorded 7,718 cases with 44 animals being forcibly slaughtered, and 4 dead. The regency began vaccinating its livestock in June 2022, and it still continues to this day. The jabs encompass first and second doses, followed by booster shots. Animals should receive their booster shot every six months.

“The foot-and-mouth disease vaccination reaches the dairy farms to small-scale community farms targeting cattle, goats, sheep, buffalos, and pigs,” Toha was quoted as saying in a recent press statement.

As of Nov. 7, as many as 353,512 animals have received their vaccines so far this year. This is about 103 percent of what the government had targeted (341,700 animals). Blitar has also vaccinated 433,445 animals in 2022-2023. This is over 90 percent of the animals in Blitar that are at risk of catching the disease.

Blitar regent Rini Syarifah applauded the regency’s farming agency for vaccinating most of the animals in the area. Rini, however, also told the agency not to be complacent as the vaccination is pivotal to the quality of the produced beef and milk. Rini said that beef production reached 1.75 million kilograms in 2022, while milk production stood at 40.22 million kilograms.

“And to those whose animals have caught the foot-and-mouth disease, please do not panic. We will continue to work on addressing this problem,” Rini said.

According to Rini, the farming agency should also remind the public that the disease will not spread to humans. The meats of the infected cattle are still edible, except for the offal and cattle tongue.