Bogor vaccinates thousands of cattle

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Anticipating an increasing demand for meat at the end of this year, Bogor agricultural and husbandry agency vaccinated around 11,000 heads of livestock in the municipality to curb the spread of anthrax.

The head of the health division at the agency, Herlien Krisnaningsih, said there were five subdistricts in the municipality that were prone to anthrax outbreaks.

The areas are Kebon Pedes in Tanah Sareal district and Cimahpar, Ciparigi, Ciluar and Tanah Baru in Bogor Utara district.

She said that 9,000 vaccines had been supplied by the West Java administration, while the remaining 2,000 were supplied by the agency.

The vaccinations started on Tuesday at a farm owned by Maffudin in Kebon Pedes and another in Ciluar subdistrict belonging to Dadang.

"None of my 28 goat or sheep had anthrax. Some of them fell sick two months ago but we immediately vaccinated all the livestock. We don't mind having them vaccinated again. We are thankful to the agency for the free vaccinations," Dadang said.

Herlien added that the agency also checked the health certificates of meat shipped by 10 regular suppliers in other regions in Central Java upon arrival at the Bogor meat market every Tuesday and Saturday.