The future of the veterinary services structure in Indonesia will become more and more imbalance if access to the basic veterinary practices in the villages and remote areas are still very limited. With the scarcity of budgetary support for government veterinary services since the beginning of the autonomy era in the 2000s coupled with service coverage difficulties by veterinarians down to the village level, it might not possible for the control programs of strategic animal infectious diseases to be successfully implemented.

The majority of the Indonesian animal population is present at the villages dispersed in all densely human populated islands. The village community with small scale animal ownership is not only considered animals as their household asset but also had socio-cultural values. Most of these livestock producers/owners had been isolated from political, communication, education and health services and worsened by low community awareness and difficulties in accessing primary animal health care.

Historically Indonesia has been owned so called ‘veterinary paramedic’ (mantri hewan), but their numbers at present has decreased sharply and they were not empowered to support government programs. With total number of around 1530 government veterinarians and 1943 veterinary paraprofessionals in the country (OIE Gap Analysis Indonesia Report, 2010), the current capacity would not be efficient in delivering the required services.

In addressing the issue and various issues of animal health that develop recently and in order to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies (CIVAS), CIVAS held a National Seminar with the theme “Learning from Bird Flu and Rabies: The need for Community Based Disease Control”. This Seminar was held on Saturday, 23 February 2013, at Graha Dewi Sartika, Bogor.

This seminar was held to get ideas and form a conception, formulation from the audience and discussion in addressing the importance of community involvement in the national animal health system. The seminar presented 4 speakers namely: ( 1 ) Pudjiatmoko, DVM., PhD, as director animal health, Ministry of Agriculture of Indonesia with the subject “Resource Needs and Problems in AI and Rabies Disease Control in the Field”, (2) Luuk Schoonman, DVM, Ph.D, from Food Agriculture Organization with “The participatory approach in the control of avian influenza and Rabies” topic, (3) Dr. Elizabeth Miranda from Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC), with the topic “Success Story: Participatory Approach in Control of Rabies in Bohol Island”, and (4) Tri Satya P. Naipospos, DVM., MPhil, PhD, from Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies (CIVAS), that conveys the topic of”The Urgency of Community-Based Approach in Avian Influenza and Rabies Control”. This seminar hosted by Arie Rukmantara which many dabbling in the fields of people empowerment and animal health.
The Seminar begins with opening remarks by the Executive Director of CIVAS, Andri Jatikusumah, DVM., MSc, then proceed with opening remarks from the Chair of The Directive Board of CIVAS, Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, DVM., MPhil, PhD, and the Director General of Livestock and Animal Health, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia, which is represented by Drh. Pudjiatmoko, Ph.D presented the last remark and opened the seminar.

The total Participants which attended the seminar is 122 people that are from various institutions, including: Research and Development of health Agency(Badan Litbangkes) – Ministry of Health, Center of Biomedical Research and Basic Health technology (Pusat Biomedis dan Teknologi Dasar Kesehatan, Balitbangkes) Directorate Drug Administration Agency– Directorate of Animal Health – Direktorat Jenderal Peternakan dan Keswan, KMU dan PP – Ditjennak Keswan, Dit.KKH, DitjenPKHA, KOMNAS Zoonosis – Kementerian Koordinator Bidang Kesejahteraan Rakyat, EID Project Support Officer, Departement of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), Taman Safari Indonesia, Ikatan Dokter Hewan Karantina Indonesia (IDHKI), Balai Besar Pengujian Mutu dan Sertifikasi Obat Hewan (BBPMSOH), Balai Besar Penelitian Veteriner Bogor, Balai Besar Veteriner Wates, BPPV Regional III Bandar Lampung, Balai Penyidikan dan Pengujian Veteriner Subang, Balai Penyidikan Penyakit Veteriner Regional V Banjarbaru, Sudin Pertanian dan Peternakan Kota Administrasi Jakarta Pusat, Dinas Pertanian dan Peternakan Provinsi Banten, Dinas Peternakan dan Perikanan Kabupaten Bogor, Dinas Pertanian Kota Tangerang, Dinas Pertanian dan Peternakan Kabupaten Tangerang, Dinas Pertanian Kehutanan dan Peternakan Provinsi Kepulauan Riau, Balai Pengujian Mutu Produk Peternakan (BPMPP), Balai Penelitian Ternak Ciawi – Bogor, BBKP Soekarno Hatta, PDHI Jabar II, ADHPI/ACIAR/PBUI, Departemen Ilmu Penyakit Hewan dan Kesmavet, FKH IPB, Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA), CREATE, PT. Wonokoyo Jaya Corporindo, PT. Vaksindo, PT. Shigeta. As for the media who attended are Trobos Magazine, Poultry Indonesia, Tabloid Agrina, Metro Indonesia, etc.

The results of this seminar is a summary and recommendation for the stakeholders which was compiled by the drafting team consisted of Albertus Teguh Muljono, DVM., MSc and Chaerul Basri, DVM., MEpid. Then this documents is sent to all participants for the suggestions for one week and then will be given to all relevant stakeholders in the hope there are a follow-up process of the stakeholders especially the government as a policy holder.

Seminar Material:

1. Kebutuhan Sumber Daya dan Kendalanya dalam Pengendalian Penyakit Flu Burung dan Rabies di Lapangan - Drh. Pudjiatmoko, Ph.D
2. The participatory approach in the control of avian influenza and Rabies – Luuk Schoonman, DVM, Ph.D
3. Success Story: Participatory Approach in Control of Rabies in Bohol Island Pendekatan - Dr. Elizabeth Miranda
4. Urgensi Pendekatan Berbasis Masyarakat dalam Pengendalian Flu Burung dan Rabies - Drh. Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, Ph.D

Seminar Formulation:
Based on the exposure of the speakers, discussions and input from the audience, then this seminar formulate several things that need to be addressed:

1. The role of veterinarians that competent, professional, and adequate is essential for national animal health system (SISKESWANNAS).
2. Indonesia as big country with the majority of livestock producers (about 85-90%) are small scale farmers scattered in the countryside, as well as the limited number of veterinarians become big obstacles for animal health services in Indonesia.
3. Pertaining to control animals disease, the limited number of veterinarians causes weak of early detection, information from the lower levels ( bottom-up information ) inadequate, and response in the field (of early response) that slow.
4. Learning from control avian influenza and rabies disease, the act of controlling animals diseases will be difficult to run (such as vaccination, culling, biosecurity etc.) without involving community participation.
5. Aware of the limitation of the number of veterinarians in many countries in the world, especially the developing countries, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) recognized the importance of the role of other parties outside of vets, such as “veterinary paramedic” (“veterinary paraprofessionals”), including cadres / animal health interpreter (animal health cadres) at the village level in the handling of animal health issues.
6. With supervision of the veterinarians, animal health cadres can be a link between the community with the Government agency that runs the animal health function and becomes part of the animal health service system thoroughly.
7. To be able to help veterinarians, animal health cadres require technical training and non-technical skills.
8. Various initiatives have been and are being made to build animal health cadres in rural in Indonesia (DELIVERI Project, Sukakeswan, PDSR, Pokja Rabies, etc), but community-based animal disease control will not be sustainable without government support and legitimate recognition of veterinary authority in Indonesia.
9. The experiences of working with the community as practiced by the PDSR and GARC team show that: a. The community generally knows if there is animal disease occurrence in their environment. b. The community has always tried to find a solution to solve the problem. c. The community participation is an important capital in improving community confidence in animal health services. d. Many members of the community who has awareness and capacity to become an animal health cadre. Those factors are essential for achieving sustainable animal health services.
10. Society, particularly the farmers, ranchers and fisherman are the subject of all activities both public health and animal health. They not only participate but are important actors in an attempt to preserve the health of the public or animal health. Therefore community-based disease control needs to be seriously considered and attempted so that these activities have high integrity (both components of the regulation, transparency, accountability, accessibility, ethics and its stimulation), steady coordination (sectoral, regional, intersectoral, professional organizations, NGOs, and donor agencies), as well as concentrate on sustainability of these systems in the future.
11. Development animal health cadres system would need to adopt One Health principle, particularly in control of zoonotic diseases. Integration between health cadres and animal health cadres, especially in preventive and promotive field (e.g. education about clean and healthy lifestyle), it is possible to be done together by the cadres.
12. The animal health cadres formation strategy that is recommended:

• Adopt health cadres patterns and system, which has been running well so far to develop a animal health cadres system.
• Insert animal health cadres system in government policy (and facilitate its formation), so there is official recognition of the cadres and regulation mechanisms relationship with a veterinarian.
• Ensuring the involvement of stakeholders (stakeholder engagement) in facilitating the formation of animal health cadres.
• Integrating aspects of business (business approach) in a primary animal health services.
• Establishing and strengthening the institutional linkages of the various agencies related to animal health services.
• Insert animal health cadres system in legislation.