FMD Might Have Existed Since 2015
The document received by Kompas also contains a collection of photos of sick pigs with clinical symptoms of FMD. From the photos, it can be seen that the pig under study had sores in the foot and mouth.
An investigation conducted by Kompas daily indicates that foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which attacks livestock, may have been in the country since 2015.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — According to an investigation carried out by Kompas daily, the ongoing outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Indonesia may have started in 2015. Kompas received a number of documents, laboratory test results, photographs and testimonies from several trusted sources who confirmed the existence of FMD in 2015, as well as alleged attempts to cover up the disease.
Documents from the veterinary laboratory test results confirmed that the FMD virus had infected pigs in West Java and Banten provinces in 2015. The pig samples from three areas — two from Gunung Sindur district, Bogor regency, West Java, and another one from Neglasari district, Tangerang City, Banten — in August and September 2015 tested positive for FMD. However, the Agriculture Ministry at that time did not announce the name of the disease that caused the extermination of hundreds of pigs in Tangerang and Bogor.
This can be seen from the presence of three isolates of the Indonesian FMD virus grouped from the phylogenetic tree.
At that time, more than 100 samples of livestock were tested using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. After FMD was identified, researchers traced the phylogenetic relationship of the virus using software that was connected to the virus bank. Of the three isolates matched, the FMD virus that attacked pigs in Bogor and Tangerang was closely related to the FMD virus in Hong Kong, Yangju (South Korea) and Japan, with a 98 percent similarity level. This can be seen from the presence of three isolates of the Indonesian FMD virus grouped from the phylogenetic tree.
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The document received by Kompas also contains a collection of photos of sick pigs with clinical symptoms of FMD. From the photos, it can be seen that the pig under study had sores in the foot and mouth. A source acknowledged that the test results had been sent to the Agriculture Ministry. However, they were not announced to the public.
Test results
Evidence for the 2015 FMD case was supported by the results of test samples from livestock suspected of being infected by FMD taken by the Veterinary Farma Center (Pusvetma) of the Agriculture Ministry in Surabaya, East Java. Pusvetma tested the samples at the Bio Security Laboratory Level 3, Airlangga University (BSL-3 Unair Lab) in November 2015. The manager of BSL-3 Unair Lab at that time, CA Nidom, acknowledged that the test results of the animal samples from Pusvetma using the PCR method were positive for FMD.
“After several days of research, I asked about the results. Because it concerns the storage of the remaining samples, I [as the lab manager] had the right to ask about it. The research team said, 'positive'," said Nidom.
Several months after the test was completed, the positive FMD sample was still stored in BSL-3 Unair Lab at a temperature of minus 80 degrees Celsius. For security reasons, Nidom decided that Unair's BSL-3 Lab would destroy the virus samples.
“A few months after the study, the virus samples were not picked up. In the end, I destroyed them,” said Nidom.
Kompas got the results of the tests at BSL-3 Unair Lab, documents explaining the origin of the samples, testing properties and notes related to the 2015 sample tests.
However, Endhang Pudjiastuti, the head of the Surabaya Veterinary Center for Veterinary Medicine in 2015, did not say the sample was positive.
"We did not say it was positive because the test results must be confirmed by a reference laboratory in Thailand. We did not have the authority to test because Indonesia's status [at that time] was free of FMD," said Endang on Wednesday (22/6/2022).
Never delivered
Based on investigations into pig farms in Tangerang and Bogor, the 2015 FMD outbreak was never informed to farmers, residents around the farm or local animal health service officers.
A pig farmer in Gunung Sindur, Sunbhi, 71, acknowledged that questions were raised by farmers at that time. They knew that some of their pigs had sores on their feet and mouths. However, they did not know what the disease was. Sunhat recalled that before culling their animals, the farmers were asked by the Fisheries and Livestock Office of Bogor regency to clean the cages.
Three of Sunbhi’s 15 pigs at that time had a hoof disease. However, Sunbhi had sold them before they were killed.
The extermination of the pigs was carried out without a detailed explanation to the farmers. Three of Sunbhi’s 15 pigs at that time had a hoof disease. However, Sunbhi had sold them before they were killed.
Aming Kuswanto, a former environmental administrator in Pengasinan village, Gunung Sindur, said that at that time, he did not receive complete information regarding the culling of the pigs. He only received verbal information from the village head of Pengasinan that the pigs would be killed because they were infected by a dangerous disease.
The pig pens in Pengasinan village were relocated to Jeletreng village, which is located less than 1 kilometer from the West Java Livestock Traffic Control Office. The pigs that were infected with the disease in 2015 were exterminated by injection in the yard of the office and were then buried.
Due to the FMD case in Bogor, the former head of the Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health of the West Java Food Security and Livestock Office, Arif Hidayat, decided to exterminate pigs with clinical symptoms of FMD. This step was taken to stop the spread of the disease.
“I immediately decided to exterminate the first five pigs. Even though there was a protest, I said the pigs should be killed. I wanted to support my friends on the field. If they were killed, it was the province that ordered it. The regency was only doing its job,” said Arif.
The limited depopulation order also came from the Agriculture Ministry through the employees of the institutions under it. An employee who did not want to be identified received an order to depopulate pigs in Bogor.
"We did not know the results [of the lab tests]. Suddenly, we were just ordered to depopulate pigs,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tangerang Food Security Service Veterinary Authority official Ibnu Ariefyanto acknowledged that he was still curious about the epidemic that attacked pigs in 2015. At that time, Ibnu was the head of the Animal Health Division of the Food Security Office. He once asked the Agriculture Ministry for the results of test samples taken from pigs that had FMD symptoms.
However, he has still not received a response.
"I did not know what happened at that time. The Agriculture Ministry should have known because it took the samples," said Ibnu.
Pigs in Tangerang were found sick with clinical symptoms of FMD in August 2015. Fearing that there would be further transmission, the local government disassembled the pig pens.
Some of the dead pigs were burned. There were also pig carcasses that were dumped into the Cisadane River. After the incident, the Tangerang administration evicted the managers of the pig pen.
Ibnu still kept the documents on the chronology of the findings of the suspected FMD cases in pigs in 2015 in Mekarsari, Neglasari. He also still kept three photos of sick pigs and two photos of meetings with related agencies to discuss the suspected infectious disease.
But until today, the ministry has not given them the PCR results.
From the document, it was found that Pusvetma had tested the sick pig sample using the PCR method. The results showed a strong indication of FMD. The Tangerang Food Security Office requested to obtain the PCR results from the director of Animal Health of the Agriculture Ministry in 11 Sept. 2015, as a basis for disease control. But until today, the ministry has not given them the PCR results.
Responding to the incident in 2015, Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, the chairman of the Commission for Experts on Animal Health, Veterinary Public Health and Animal Quarantine at the Agriculture Ministry, assessed that there was a lack of transparency of information related to the handling of infectious diseases. He regretted that the events of 2015 were known only in limited circles.
Even though the results of the PCR test on pigs were positive for FMD, according to Trisatya, there was still a need for further mechanisms to confirm the results.
"The virus must be isolated to ensure it no longer exists," he said.
The hiding of information related to dangerous diseases is contrary to Article 14 of Government Regulation No. 14/2014 concerning the control and management of animal diseases. Indonesian Ombudsman commissioner Yeka Hendra Fatika, who was also aware of the information on the alleged 2015 FMD outbreak from the results of his own investigation, said government officials in the animal health sector had ignored their legal obligations.
"This means that there was maladministration in the handling of infectious diseases in livestock," he said.
Kompas tried to confirm with the Agriculture Ministry regarding the alleged FMD outbreak in 2015 through a letter. After more than a week, no response was received. Makmun, the secretary of the Directorate General of Agriculture and Animal Health of the Agriculture Ministry, who was contacted on Saturday (9/7), said: “The data must be traced first. I never handled it." (FAI/DVD/IRE/NDY)
(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi)