Veterinary Service Officers (VSO) asked to proactively respond to commercial poultry problems in their areas

A decline in chicken egg production has hit commercial poultry farmers all over Indonesia. Many of them claim that the decline in egg laying has reached over 40%. They suspect that this condition is caused by H9N2 Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza (LPAI) and Inclusion Body Hepatitis (IBH) outbreaks, which have been reported over the last year. Moreover, the government ban on the use of Antimicrobial Growth Promotors (AGP), which came into effect on 1 January 2018, may also play a role in the production decline, claim farmers.

Even though the media has been covering the situation, there are few reports on this problem, by local government Veterinary Service Officers (VSO).

As a response to this challenge to egg production, FAO ECTAD Indonesia with the Ministry of Agriculture MoA), through the EPT2 program, funded by USAID, held a technical coordination meeting with local government animal health staff of affected areas on 20-21 February 2018 in Tangerang. As many as 28 VSOs from 28 districts in Java, Sumatera, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan, trained to engage with the commercial poultry industry participated in the meeting.

The meeting was held to increase the knowledge of the participants on egg drop syndrome, H9N2 LPAI and IBH; it also aimed to motivate VSOs to proactively respond to commercial poultry problems in their areas, and to disseminate current information on IBH, as well as MoA policy on AGPs. The information was delivered by speakers from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Gajah Mada University and PT Medion Indonesia. Drh Muhammad Syibli, Head of the Sub-directorate of Veterinary Drug Control, Ministry of Agriculture, delivered information about the MoA Regulation (Permentan No 14/2017) on the use of AGPs in animal feed.

In his speech, Drh Syibli asked trained animal health officers to actively engage with commercial poultry farmers. He also hoped that VSOs would collaborate with private sector technical personnel to gather up-to-date information on poultry diseases and egg production problems affecting the industry.

“This meeting is a coordination platform for animal health officers and also a means for VSOs to update their knowledge on avian influenza, IBH and government policy on the use of AGPs in chicken feed. However, the most important thing is to encourage district animal health staff to improve their engagement and communication with private poultry sector technical services staff, so that they can obtain poultry disease information faster than the media,” he explained.

Responding to Drh Syibli, Fatkhur Rahman VSO from Karanganyar district, Central Java said that currently the main activities in the Livestock Service are focused on the beef self-sufficiency program (Upsus SIWAB) to increase cattle numbers and beef production via artificial insemination. All our resources, including time, budget and staff are fully absorbed by the program. “We have no budget allocation to address poultry problems. Therefore, reports from field officers on poultry health are minimal,” stated Fatkhur.

Another concern raised during the discussion was about substitutes for AGPs. Asri Kurnia from Tasikmalaya regency, West Java said that staff often faced questions about AGPs from commercial poultry farmers. They hope that the government can provide an alternative to AGPs so that production won’t fall. “We are often asked questions on government AGP policy and the use of AGPs. Farmers demand clarity on the policy because the ban has caused a decrease in farm productivity and slower chicken growth,” said Asri.

Apart from the AGP ban, other technical questions from the audience on government regulations were answered well by the speakers. However, up to the closing of the discussion, the question on AGP substitutes remained unanswered.