Australia, Indonesia commit to fight against FMD outbreak

By ANDI JATMIKO and NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Australia’s top agriculture official has met with his Indonesian counterpart to discuss ways to stop a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that has infected hundreds of thousands of cattle in Indonesia and prevent the outbreak from spreading to Australia. The disease was detected in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and East Java in May and has spread to 20 other provinces, including Bali, in the past two months. As of Thursday, more than 366,000 animals have been infected in 22 provinces, largely on the most populated islands of Java and Sumatra. At least 2,400 animals have died from the disease, according to official data from the National FMD Task Force.