West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggar (ANTARA) - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin listened to farmers' account of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak during a visit to Reyan Baru cattle farm in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, on Thursday.

"We immediately received assistance from the relevant agencies, and Praise be to God, our veterinarian is responsive (because when) we call them late at night to inject (the animals), they say they can. Praise be to God, after the injection (the animals) have now recovered. Some 327 (livestock) have recovered completely," a farmer from the Reyan Baru farm group said.

He told the Vice President that they could not rest nor eat out of anxiety for 14 days when their livestock lost their appetite after contracting FMD.

"If the cattle do not eat well, we also feel the same," he remarked.

The farmer said that due to proper treatment by the veterinarian, all livestock infected with FMD have since recovered.

"Our vet, Dr. Saiful Bahri, is our mascot to monitor us," he added.

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At the same venue, the Agriculture Ministry's director general of livestock and animal health, Nasrullah, said that the authorities will vaccinate only healthy livestock because livestock that have been infected and recovered from the infection have gained immunity against the disease on their own.

Meanwhile, West Nusa Tenggara Governor Zulkieflimansyah said that the province has been allotted 20 thousand FMD vaccines by the central authority.

Of the total allocation to the province, at least 2,400 doses have been received and are ready to be distributed to regions affected by the FMD outbreak, he added.

West Nusa Tenggara is the province with the second-highest FMD cases after East Java. The province has so far logged 45,738 infections along with 24,288 recoveries, accounting for 53 percent of the total cases.

As of June 28, 2022, at least 12,593 heads of cattle in West Lombok have contracted FMD, while around 6,441 heads of cattle have since recovered.

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Translator: Desca Lidya N, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Suharto
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