Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Agriculture Ministry organizes a training for facilitators, or training of trainers (ToT), to prepare them to train and teach other health workers on implementing mass vaccination to boost the fight against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
"Under the training, experts from the producers of vaccines that will be used in Indonesia are invited to provide information on vaccines and their implementation," the Ministry's Public Relations and Information Bureau Head, Kuntoro Boga Andri, noted.
Through a statement on Friday, he remarked that the ministry will also provide lessons to farmers on the livestock data collection mechanism.
This will be used to mark livestock post-vaccination and serve as material for vaccination workers.
Moreover, farmers are being edified on the importance of implementing a first line of defense for plague control or simple biosecurity during vaccination.
This aims to avoid the possibility of workers becoming a triggering factor that can spread the disease even further.
"This activity serves as part of the government's efforts to improve the skills of vaccination workers on the field," he explained.
Related news: Govt launches FMD vaccination program from East Java
The ministry, along with the Agriculture and Animal Health Directorate General, had promptly conducted tracing ever since the first FMD case was detected.
Within a matter of days, the ministry managed to find a strain from the FMD virus.
"We had also conducted handling and medication efforts for livestock, with mild to severe symptoms," he revealed.
The virus infection spreads through air and can infect quickly, as it can reach up 10 km, which is causal to the swift spread of FMD.
The government is also conducting conditional slaughtering of infected livestock to reduce the risk of infection.
The current condition also aligns with the preparations for Eid al-Adha. As a result, the livestock traffic in the central area became faster than normal that can expedite the spread of the FMD virus infection.
"Hence, the government conducts control efforts with regard to livestock movement at livestock centres, such as by implementing checkpoints, conducting animal quarantine, and sea toll monitoring, as well as avoiding FMD spread from the green zone," Andri noted.
Related news: Agriculture Ministry to roll out FMD vaccination on June 14
