In the past, DVS Perak was only involved in controlling disease outbreaks such as Foot and Mouth Disease ( FMD ) and Haemorrhagic Septicaemia ( HS ) in cattle and buffaloes. The Department has never encountered a disease outbreak of this nature and magnitude as Japanese encephalitis or the newly emergent Nipah encephalitis virus. The planning, logistics, cost and involvement of various other agencies in carrying out this control program was substantially quite huge whilst in our previous experiences, where only the Veterinary Department was solely involved, in the recent episode however, a large proportion of the whole State government machinery involving almost twenty agencies have been mobilized, coordinated and called into action to control this disease outbreak. The agencies involved were State Secretariat office with the State Economic Planning Unit as the Secretariat, Ipoh City Hall ( DBI ), Kinta District Office, Batang Padang District Office, Kuala Kangsar District office, the Royal Police, Public Works Department ( JKR ), the Armed Forces specifically the Northern Brigade and the Royal Ranger Regiment, Water Authority, Fire and Rescue Department, Health Department and Hospitals, Information Department, RELA, Pasukan Gerak Am, Drainage and Irrigation Department, Agriculture Department and State DVS. The total number of personnel involved was about 600 people from all above departments and agencies including both working in the field and operation room and as supporting staff.

The modus operandi for the first phase of the control program were as follows :

The forward base was set up in our office compound which comprised of the operations room - where the planning and discussion of daily activities, communications, arrangement of transportation of personnel, compiling of daily data and information and the post-mortem of the day's operation were held, supply section - where protective clothing gears such as non-permeable long-sleeve cloth and high quality safety coveralls, gum boots, gloves, equipment such as filtered mask, goggles, face-shield, refreshments were purchased, stocked and distributed to the field personnel, canteen where breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea were provided by two caterers, disinfecting section - where clothing gears, equipment, field personnel and vehicles were washed and disinfected and a clinic - where a small complete hospital was set up. The daily report collected and prepared by 3 to 4 personnel in operation room was sent to the secretariat of the state operations room, our HQ and the national operation in Kuala Lumpur.

In the culling operation on the field, usually there were about seven to ten teams operating at any one time depending on farm size and number. About 40 to 50 personnel made up a team which consisted of the counting group staff formed by 3 or 4 DVS staff, herding / chasing / pushing group formed by about 20 to 30 DBI staff, shooters formed by about 8 to 12 from the Army, DBI and DVS staff and digging team formed by JKR staff with the use of several excavators and backhoes. Routine operation involved first the entry of the counting group doing head counts of every individual pig together with and in agreement with farm hands, followed by herding, chasing and manual pushing of pigs into pits dug by the digging team usually done on the previous day of operation. While the majority of operations were by manual herding, on some farms however, forklifts with cages, loading ramps and tipper lorries and trailers were also used. One a substantial number of pigs were placed in the pits, shooting exercise will begin. When enough pigs were shot for the day, all pits were covered with a few layers of hydrated lime and sand / soil and checked daily for smell pollution. The cooperation among all the departments and the farmers was very good. In all culling operations in all farms, DBI staff carried out fogging much earlier prior to all other activities. This was to reduce risk of field personnel to mosquito bites.

A total of 88 farms with a standing pig populating ( SPP ) of 186,793 pigs were culled in the first and second phases of the control program in the areas of Tambun, Ampang, Ulu Piah, the surrounding ten kilometers infected zone and the seven Nipah virus-positive farms in the district of Kinta ( 4 farms ), Batang Padang ( 2 farms ) and Kuala Kangsar (1 farm ).

A rough figure of RM 2.3 million was spent, not including the compensation figure for the affected pig farmers, which was about RM 8.2 million. The RM 2.3 million included RM 1.7 million for the operational costs which comprise of RM 1.4 million for the purchase of protective / safety clothing such as coveralls, gears and equipment such as filtered mask, goggles, gum-boots, face-shield, gloves etc. and chemicals for disinfection such as Lindores and hydrated lime etc., RM 0.3 million for food and refreshments, RM 0.03 million for the purchase of equipment and materials for the second phase surveillance program such as blood collecting tubes, venoject needles and holders, etc. About RM 0.4 million was for the special allowance of RM 55 per person per day, RM 10.1 million for the overtime and lodging claims, and RM 0.02 million for the cost of operating the operations room both at the state-level and the forward base. These costs are borne by both the Federal and State Governments with the bulk of them by the Federal government. On average, if excluding the compensation cost, RM 12.50 was spent on one culled pig calculate based on the figure RM 2.3 million divided by the total number of pigs culled, 186,793 pigs, whereas if the compensation cost is included it will come to RM 62.50 per pig culled. Even though from the economic point of view, the cost of controlling the Japanese / Nipah encephalitis disease seems to be very high but with the prompt, well-planned and well-coordinated action taken we managed to control the outbreak in Perak in the minimum of time.