Indonesian Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha amid FMD outbreak

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak has disrupted ritual slaughter of animals to mark Eid al-Adha as millions of Muslims across Indonesia were celebrating one of the biggest holidays in the Islamic calendar Sunday.

Eid al-Adha, known as the “Feast of Sacrifice,” is a revered observance that coincides with the final rites of the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia. It’s a joyous occasion for which food is a hallmark where devout Muslims buy and slaughter animals and share two-thirds of the meat with the poor.

Much of Asia, including Indonesia, India and Pakistan, observed Eid al-Adha on Sunday, while Muslims in other parts of the globe, including in countries like Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Kenya and Yemen celebrated the holiday on Saturday.

But this year, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease — an acute, highly contagious viral disease of cloven-footed animals that is sometimes transmitted to humans — has significantly dampened the typically booming holiday trade in goats, cows and sheep in Indonesia, the world's largest populous Muslim country.

FMD is again spreading rapidly across Indonesia, which had been outbreak-free for 32 years. The government, struggling to cope with the ever-rising numbers, is setting up a task force and ordering the culling of nearly 3,000 infected livestock.

As of Sunday, more than 336,000 animals have been infected in 21 provinces, largely on the most populated islands of Java and Sumatra. At least 2,000 animals died from the disease, according to official data from the National FMD Task Force.

Although FMD is not generally considered a threat to human health, it can be lethal for animals and the outbreak has diminished people’s enthusiasm for sacrifice. The country’s religious affairs ministry has told Muslims they should...