BY ALLAN JAY, ALVERDTEKOSTER ANYAP & LEE SHAW WEI
THE Veterinary Public Health (Amendment) Bill 2022 was unanimously passed at the 19th Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Wednesday (Nov 23) after it was debated by four assemblymen.
Minister for Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom, who tabled the Bill, said it was seeking to amend the Sarawak Veterinary Public Health Ordinance 1999.
It was seconded by Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development, Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah.
It is to allow the State Veterinary Authority to delegate its functions and duties to any public officer, and to allow authorisation of other persons by the State Veterinary Authority to dispense veterinary drugs.
“As we all know, there’s an outbreak of rabies and to be exact, the first rabies case was detected in Serian on July 1, 2017.
“Up to now, there are a total of 72 areas in the state declared as rabies infected areas.
“To date, there are a total of 51 rabies cases in Sarawak and from the figure, 44 have succumbed to the disease,” he said.
The Kemena assemblyman said the Sarawak Security and Enforcement Unit (UPKS) had established the Immune Belt Enforcement Team (IBET) on June 22, 2020.
He pointed out that IBET would play a significant role in complementing the Department of Veterinary Services (DVSS) in its rabies control and conduct awareness programme among the community.
“As of now, they (IBET) are empowered to conduct controls by carrying out awareness programmes.
“Currently, there is no existing provision in the Sarawak Veterinary Public Health Ordinance 1999 to authorise and give due power to IBET officers to vaccinate dogs and dispense veterinary drugs.
“Therefore, it’s proposed that they be given legal authority and power to any person especially IBET officers in performing their task in dispensing of vet drugs and vaccination as stipulated in Section 57 of the Ordinance.
“We have a total of 32 IBET officers, and they can strengthen our fight against rabies with DVSS to cover the whole of Sarawak-Kalimantan border especially vaccinating dogs in some 1,000 settlements and villages along the border,” he said.
Dr Rundi acknowledged that Sarawak was short handed in terms of manpower compared to Sabah, who has about 700 people and Sarawak only has about 200 people.
“With that, what we like is to have full cooperation from public and authorities as it is near impossible for the authorities to do it alone.
“But with public cooperation, we should be able to contain this and by 2025, it will be fully eradicated.”
