Bali’s Agricultural and Food Security Agency announced today that it had eliminated 55 out of 63 cows on the island that have tested positive for the virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
“In total there are 63 cases, 55 eliminated, leaving eight cows,” the agency’s chief I Wayan Sunada said over the weekend.
Wayan explained that 38 of the diseased cows were found in Medahan Village, Gianyar, and all of the cattle had been slaughtered.
The eight remaining diseased cows, located in Karangasem and Buleleng, are set for slaughter. The official said culling is the best measure to stop the spread of the disease to other cows, with quarantine and treatment unlikely to be sufficient to contain the highly transmissible virus.
The FMD outbreak in Indonesia began in May this year – decades after the eradication of the disease in 1986.
Bali authorities are currently investigating the cause behind the FMD outbreak reaching the island. The island’s provincial government has placed a current ban on any cattle to be transferred to other regions in Indonesia, as well as preparing vaccines.
