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By: Erianto Nugroho

On April 22 to 24, 2015, the municipal government of Depok conducted an Agriculture and Livestock Product Promotion Fair at Depok City Hall in collaboration with the Indonesia Veterinary Medical Association (IVMA) West Java II Branch and Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies (CIVAS). The event was held to commemorate the city’s 16^th anniversary. CIVAS participated actively in contributing to the fair and holding a talk show together with IVMA. The event also coincides with World Veterinary Day which is celebrated in the last week of April every year.

The theme of the talk show held was “Animal Care Day” and there were two topics discussed. The first session of the show talked about “Being Healthy with Your Pet”. The purpose of this topic is to provide the public with information on tips and tricks on how to maintain the health of their pets, responsible pet ownership, and important animal diseases. There were 4 speakers for this topic: (1) R. Soenarti D. Waspada, DVM, MS, MARS, small animal practitioner and representative from the IVMA West Java II Branch, who spoke about the medical aspects of pet health; (2) Nurtantio Sitanggang, DVM, from Agriculture and Fisheries Services of Depok city who spoke about government policies on pet ownership; (3) Erianto Nugroho, DVM from CIVAS who spoke about responsible pet ownership; and (4) Sarikit, DVM, from Proplan, one of the sponsors of the event, who spoke about pet food selection. Moderator for the talk show was Andri Jatikusumah, DVM, MSc from CIVAS and Dodi Irwan Suparno, DVM from PT Tunas Daya Veterinaria, another sponsor of the event.

The second topic on the talk show was about “How to Select Safe, Healthy, Wholesome and Halal Animal Products”. The purpose was to provide the public with information on how to select safe, healthy, wholesome and halal products and the veterinary public health aspects of selecting, handling and storing animal products properly. There were 3 speakers for this topic: (1) Dr. Med. Vet. Hadri Latif, DVM, MSi, member of CIVAS and professor at the Bogor Agricultural University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine; (2) Agus Triana W. Gati, DVM from IVMA West Java II Branch who also works at the Animal Product Quality Testing and Certification Laboratory; and (3) Fetty Dinya, DVM from Agriculture and Fisheries Services of Depok city. Moderator for this topic was Ridvana Dwibawa Darmawan, DVM and Nofita Nurbiyanti, BVSc from CIVAS.

Aside from the talk show, CIVAS also contributed to the event by providing a stand with education materials on responsible pet ownership and how to select safe, healthy, wholesome and halal animal products, and giving out brochures to people attending the event. CIVAS also erected a large size rabies snake and ladder boardgame to educate elementary school children on rabies while they play. An education corner was also provided with booklets and comic books on rabies.**