Health workers to monitor meat amid anthrax fears

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As demand for meat is expected to increase during the Christmas and New Year holidays and the Islamic Day of Sacrifice Idul Adha on Jan. 10, the Jakarta administration is tightly monitoring livestock coming into the city amid fears of the spread of anthrax.

"We will tighten our supervision of livestock prone to anthrax, like goats, sheep, cow and buffalo at their temporary shelters and slaughterhouses," Jakarta Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Agency head Edy Setiarto said over the weekend.

Edy said that the heightened supervision ranged from checking the required health manifests attached to the animals to physical examination before and after the slaughter.

"We have asked veterinarians from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture and other health workers to monitor the cattle at the checkpoints," he told the press briefing.

More than 650 vets and health workers are expected to augment the 150-strong team of agency officials.

"As a precautionary measure, we have examined 123 specimens from livestock and 534 samples of meat sold in the markets. The results were negative," he said.

Jakarta consumes over than 300 cattle every day, mostly originating from Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali, East Nusatenggara, West Nusatenggara, Lampung and Greater Jakarta.

Concern of the risks of eating meat rose after a report of anthrax-infected cows in Makassar, South Sulawesi, three weeks ago.

The agency has declared the city temporarily closed to cattle originating from South Sulawesi.

"We require all livestock entering the capital to have manifests issued by the respective local animal husbandry agencies certifying that the livestock are healthy," Edy said.

The demand for livestock here is expected to peak ahead of Idul Adha where most mosque managements across the city will buy cattle, which will be slaughtered and then distributed to the congregations and the needy.

As part of efforts to minimize the spread of anthrax virus during the killing of the cattle, which is usually done in open spaces in mosque yards, the agency has also called on the people to allow city-owned slaughterhouses to handle this year's ceremony.

Anthrax infection in humans is of particular concern during Idul Adha as it occurs through direct exposure to diseased livestock, meat and animal products or through eating undercooked meat. Infection can occur through the skin, through inhalation and through the gastrointestinal tract. The disease is often fatal, though treatable with antibiotics if discovered early.

"We highly recommend that people allow our slaughterhouses to handle the killing so that we can better monitor the health of the cattle that will be distributed to the congregations," said director of city-owned slaughterhouse operator PD Dharma Jaya, Liliansari Loedin.

Liliansari said her company would perform the slaughter in accordance with Islamic tradition and put the meat in one- kilogram bags ready for distribution.

"We only require them to pay Rp 5,000 per goat for the slaughter fee and Rp 30,000 per cow," she said.

The company will charge for the issuance of health documents, Rp 1,000 for a goat and Rp 4,000 for a cow.