Animal safety checks to continue in capital

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

To ensure Jakarta is free of animal-related diseases, officials will continue to inspect goats and cattle for three days after the Islamic Day of Sacrifice, or Idul Adha, which fell on Dec. 20.

"I have instructed officials to continue checking animals for three more days," Governor Fauzi Bowo said Thursday after attending Idul Adha prayers at the City Hall.

During the prayers, Fauzi presented a cow to the head of the Jakarta Spiritual Management Center, Abdul Madjid S.

Some 17 cows and 55 goats left at the City Hall on Thursday were to be taken to a slaughterhouse in Cakung, East Jakarta.

The head of the city's animal husbandry, fisheries and marine agency, Edy Setiarto, said officials would check the health of animals both before and after their slaughter.

"I hope there will be no reports of anthrax as there were last year," Edy said.

Last year the administration was forced to ban animals from several locations in Depok, Purwakarta, and Bogor from being transported into the city when it was discovered they were infected with anthrax.

Almost 3,000 officials, including 265 veterinarians from the Bogor Agricultural Institute and 50 more from the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Association of Veterinarians, are expected to check the health of around 71,000 animals in some 2,200 slaughterhouses located in the capital.

Other officials have been deployed to check the health of animals in slaughterhouses throughout the municipality.

"We will check the condition of animals after they are slaughtered also. We will check things such as their kidneys, hearts and livers," said Chaidir Taufik, an official at West Jakarta's animal husbandry agency.

He said respiratory diseases had been the most common illness found in cattle and goats during the campaign.

"Some traders do not take care of the animals well," he said, adding that officials tell traders to treat their sick animals with antibiotics rather than sell them.

"Fortunately, at this stage there have not been any cases of anthrax reported," he said. (ewd)