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East Nusa Tenggara Short on Veterinarians
Mbay - East Nusa Tenggara province, which is a national livestock center, is short on veterinarians. This statement was said by Head of the Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health Division of the Livestock Service Office of East Nusa Tenggara, Maria Geong, on Saturday (22/8) in Nagekeo district, Flores.
Maria had conducted a field visit to Wolowae subdistrict in Nagekeo district and Maukaro subdistrict in Ende district regarding outbreaks of Septicaemia Epizooticae (SE) or also known as Hemorrhagic Septicemia that had occurred from June to August. This disease is caused by bacteria Pasteurella multocida and has caused the death of 98 cattle and water buffalos in Wolowae and Maukaro.
According to Maria, currently East Nusa Tenggara only has 83 veterinarians; most of the vets are in the provincial capital. The average number of veterinarians per district/municipality is only 2 people.
“Ideally, a vet should handle 2,500 animals,” she said. Data from the Central Statistic Body of Nusa Tenggara Timur for 2007 shows that cattle population in the province in 2007 was 555,383 heads, while water buffalo population was 144,981 heads. This figure has not included animal counts for pigs, goats, horses, sheep, and poultry.
Maria said the lack of veterinarians had made vaccination programs difficult to conduct. When disease outbreaks occur, rapid treatment and vaccination was difficult to achieve.
Citizen of Tendakinde village in Wolowae subdistrict, Alo Laja, said often when an animal was sick, there was no veterinarian or veterinary paramedic available.
Maria advices the district government to recruit people from Animal Husbandry High Schools and Animal Husbandry Bachelors in East Nusa Tenggara to become vaccination cadres through a work contract system.
According to Maria, cases of SE do not affect beef cattle trade from East Nusa Tenggara. “Wolowae and Maukaro subdistricts are isolated for two weeks to stop further spread of the disease [SE],” she said.
Chairman of Commission B of Nagekeo district parliament, Silvester Y Gani, reminded the government to not be project-oriented in regards with SE control. “The district government is late in response. I have reported sudden death of livestock in Wolowae to the authorities [dinas] since July, but they’ve just responded only now,” he said. (SEM)
Source : Kompas