A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak has ripped through two Indonesian provinces since April, killing thousands of cows and infecting hundreds of thousands more, raising consumer fears before the July 10 festival.
"When I contacted them, they said they did not sacrifice any livestock this year because of the foot-and-mouth disease." Cow-farmer Masrizal said he has struggled to sell his cattle because of sluggish demand for meat and shuttered livestock markets in Aceh province. But farmers in Indonesia are trying to keep their precious assets alive despite the risk of the disease spreading through close contact between animals, contaminated feed and farm equipment.
Suharyanto, the head of the government's new task force, compared the outbreak to the Covid-19 pandemic, and Jakarta said it would attempt to administer 800,000 vaccine shots to healthy cattle by July 7, before the day of sacrifice.