Australia to Send 1 Million Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccines Next Month

TheIndonesia.id - The Australian government has pledged to send one million foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines to Indonesia as part of the commitment to support national effort to contain the current FMD outbreak.

During his visit to Jakarta on Thursday, July 14, Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry Murray Watt met Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo and said Australia will support FMD outbreak handling in Indonesia, including by sending one million doses of FMD vaccine next month.

“We’ve prepared one million vaccines for FMD, and we will send them to Indonesia in August 2022,” Watt said, as reported by Antara.

In the meeting, the Australian official also confirmed the commitment to provide AU$500,000 (US$336,000) for the training of veterinary health workers tasked with the handling of FMD outbreak.

“I understand that the Indonesian government is concerned about the spread of FMD, and we share the same concern,” Watt added.

Previously, Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry said the visit is the next step in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese government’s effort to combat FMD, building on new biosecurity measures introduced, including extra screening of travelers, luggage and mail, biosecurity detector dogs, more information for travelers and signage in airports.

“The Albanese Government is taking strong action on FMD at home and abroad. This two-pronged approach is about strengthening our biosecurity defenses at home, and supporting Indonesia to manage and contain the outbreak there,” Minister Watt said in the statement on Tuesday.

The Australian government has issued alerts for arriving travelers to prevent the spread of FMD in the country. It warns travelers to not bring meat or dairy products to Australia and to ensure any equipment, clothing, or shoes brought into Australia are clean and free from soil and manure. Travelers are also ordered to declare anything that presents a possible FMD risk to a biosecurity officer for inspection on arrival in Australia.