Aussie veterinary expertise assists in Indonesia
11 Jan 2024(Image: Dr Scott Ison at the FAO office in Jakarta. Image: Scott Ison)
Emergency animal disease outbreaks have the potential to significantly impact Australia’s animal industries and economy. A key focus of Australia’s preparedness strategies to prevent an incursion of diseases like foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and lumpy skin disease (LSD), is supporting neighbouring countries in our region to prevent and combat animal disease outbreaks. Australia is free from both FMD and LSD, however LSD, a serious viral disease of cattle and buffalo, spread through Southeast Asia in recent years and was first reported in Indonesia in March 2022 in Riau province, on the island of Sumatra.
Following the outbreak of LSD in Indonesia, detections of FMD outbreaks in two separate Indonesian provinces in May 2022 came as a shock to government and livestock industries. Australia was quick to respond by providing support to Indonesia in the form of technical expertise and donations of vaccine.
Veterinarian Dr Scott Ison was seconded from the Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases in Jakarta in mid-2023, to provide technical expertise to FAO Indonesia in support of FMD and LSD control in Indonesia. He shared an update about his experience there to date.
“When I heard about the FMD outbreak in Indonesia, I was surprised, but I quickly decided that I wanted to help out. My decision to become a veterinarian was heavily influenced by the 2001 FMD outbreak in the UK. I was a teenager in high school, and the outbreak in the UK made a big impact on me as my family and friends were heavily involved with livestock businesses throughout NSW,” said Scott.
“I once read an article in the New York Times which explained that most people develop their taste in music between the ages of 11 and 16 years. This was the age that I was learning about what a vet is and how they can improve livestock industries. Farmers were talking about the devastating impact of FMD on the UK livestock industries and the significance of an outbreak in a country like Australia that is so reliant on freedom of disease statuses for exports and commodity prices.”
“Some parallels were drawn with Argentina, which had a growing live cattle and beef export trade until FMD outbreaks in the early 2000’s had devastating effects on their livestock industries. As I went through university and into the workforce, I regularly met Australian veterinarians who had worked in the UK during the outbreak.”
(Image: FAO team attending a feedlot in Banten province with Ausvet team during a biosecurity assessment. Image: Sonny Handaru)
“In 2016 I participated in the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD) real-time training in Nepal. I still remember the facilitator telling us at the briefing, ‘Tomorrow you will see real life cases of FMD. After years of studying the disease but never seeing it firsthand, many of you will feel like you are meeting Michael Jackson and The Queen at the same time!’. It was probably the most valuable week in my career. I got to meet a brand-new group of government veterinarians and biosecurity staff from across Australia, with a similar interest in FMD. I saw the impact the disease can have on agricultural communities and began to understand some of the complexities related to control. It was one of the key reasons that I wanted to get involved in Indonesia,” explained Scott.
Indonesia, a vast and diverse country
With a population of almost 280 million people, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world behind India, China and the United States of America. Over half of the Indonesian population live on the main island, Java – one of the most populous and densely populated islands in the world. For Australian context, Java is half the size of Victoria and the population density is twice that of Greater Melbourne. The rest of the population is spread throughout around 6,000 smaller islands, and there are also some 12,000 uninhabited islands.
“Geography, culture, language, remoteness and agricultural practices are extremely diverse across Indonesia, but they can all speak the same national language, Bahasa Indonesia. In early 2023, an opportunity came up for a government veterinarian to join the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) and undertake an approximately nine-month secondment with FAO Indonesia, based in Jakarta. I somehow convinced my wife that this would be a good thing for our family to do. We packed up our house on the outskirts of Deniliquin and moved our three boys, aged 2, 4 and 7, to a 20th floor hotel room in central Jakarta. It has taken some time to adjust as there are no similarities between Deniliquin and Jakarta, however it has been a good experience to connect as a family,” shared Scott.
“In my first week in Jakarta, I was invited to attend a vaccine production workshop organised by the Australia-Indonesia Heath Security Partnership (AIHSP). Two world-renowned experts in vaccine production and efficacy gave presentations to a room full of Indonesia’s top experts. I was wearing an earpiece to hear the simultaneous translation between Bahasa Indonesia and English. I missed the translation for the next comment from the facilitator and nearly fell off my chair when they gave me the microphone to provide opening remarks and comments on the presentations!”
(Image: Dr Scott Ison facilitating a workshop at FAO After Action Review for the FMD Emergency Response in Indonesia. Image: Andro Jatikusumah)
“I think that I held my own with some broad statements and made a mental note to learn about FMD management in endemic settings like Indonesia as quickly as possible. This was something that I had never had to deal with as a government veterinarian in Australia and my week in Nepal and some other professional development was useful but didn’t quite cut it. There are some excellent publications from FAO, WOAH and EuFMD but the most valuable resource was the access I had to international expertise through my positions with FAO Indonesia and DAFF. I have spent many hours in phone calls, emails, workshops and coffee shops, listening, probing and absorbing to find out why FMD and LSD control in Southeast Asia is such a complex issue.”
“Within my first few weeks in Jakarta I also had the privilege of participating in the planning workshop for FAO’s FMD and LSD Indonesia project. FAO hosted around fifty participants from central and regional governments and other non-government organisations. The FAO team did an excellent job of organising the participants into groups and engaging them in brainstorming sessions to identify priority activities for FMD and LSD control and management. This information was turned into a workplan document that was endorsed by the Indonesian government. I was impressed with the way FAO co-designed the project with key stakeholders to get buy-in from the beginning and ensure activities were relevant and achievable. It gave me great confidence that the project would reach the right outcomes. It is a process that I will draw on when I return to Australia to ensure the success of future projects that I am involved in.”
Making a difference
Scott has been involved in numerous other workshops and meetings, covering topics from enterprise biosecurity and risk communication to technical staff training, stakeholder coordination and strategic planning.
(Image: FAO After Action Review for the FMD Emergency Response in Indonesia. Image: Andro Jatikusumah)
“I am developing a deep understanding of livestock disease programs in Indonesia and some of the challenges and complexities. Indonesia is a vast and diverse country. Their systems and beliefs are very different from Australia. While I’m not going into the field much to see clinical cases or contribute to vaccination campaigns, I am rapidly learning about the work that the national government of Indonesia does so that I can make recommendations and coordinate Australian support efforts for better disease control outcomes. Livestock production and food security are critical to Indonesia’s way of life. Indonesia is such an important close neighbour to Australia and effective disease control programs in Indonesia are a big part of biosecurity in our region,” said Scott.
“I feel incredibly privileged to be involved in supporting the response to this disease outbreak in the way that I have been. I hope I can look back and say that I built some lifelong friendships and made positive contributions to the region’s biosecurity system. I also expect that this journey will provide me with learnings that I use for the rest of my career. I can’t say that the journey has been all smooth sailing, but it has definitely been worth it. I would encourage anyone else who gets this type of opportunity to grab it with both hands!”
For the latest updates on the work of the Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer, please follow the social media channels of the Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Beth Cookson on LinkedIn and Twitter.