Chickens die from mysterious plague<\/p>\n
Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post\/Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
Farmers in Yogyakarta's Sleman regency have complained over the
\nweekend that thousands of their chicken have died due to an
\nunidentified disease in the past few days.<\/p>\n
Apart from inflicting millions of rupiah in losses on farmers
\nin the region, the outbreak of the mysterious viral disease, has
\ndiscouraged them from breeding.<\/p>\n
The farmers, which are still baffled by the outbreak, said
\nthat the disease killed chickens at a rapid pace. \"The first
\noutbreak occurred five days ago. The chickens looked fine in the
\nmorning, but later in the afternoon, they had died. The outbreak
\nis so severe that most chickens in our village have died,\" Anto,
\none of farmer in Pakem, Sleman told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He said that the most immediate symptoms of the illness were
\nthat the chickens salivated and died in hours. \"Fluid also comes
\nout of the chickens' anus. It was like people suffering from
\ndiarrhea,\" Anto said.<\/p>\n
An official with Hargobinagun subdistrict office Kisno said
\nthat the mysterious disease had cast a specter over five villages
\nin Pakem district, Candibinangun, Harjobinagun, Pakembinangun,
\nPurwobinagun and Hargobinangun.<\/p>\n
\"In Hargobinangun alone there are over a 1,000 households that
\nbreed chickens. Each has at least 15 chickens,\" he said, adding
\nthat the 30 chickens he bred had also died.<\/p>\n
Kisno said that the outbreak of the mysterious disease had
\nadded to the farmers' woes who had yet to recover from the bird
\nflu scare.<\/p>\n
\"Bird flu had killed most of the farmers' chickens. And the
\nnew disease appeared right when the farmers started the poultry
\nbusiness all over again,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Kisno said that the recent outbreak had discouraged farmers.
\n\"People here are still traumatized by bird flu,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Contacted separately, head of the poultry division of Sleman
\nagriculture agency Suwadi Azis said that his office had not
\nreceived any reports from poultry farmers on the disease
\noutbreak. \"We haven't received any reports from the farmers,
\ntherefore we can't theorize about what caused the disease,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
However, Suwadi said that the symptoms might indicate
\nNewcastle Disease.<\/p>\n
\"If that is the disease, we already have the vaccine to
\nprevent the further spread of the disease,\" he said.<\/p>\n
However, he said that the distribution of the vaccine would be
\ndifficult, as the chickens were bred by individual households,
\nSuwadi said.<\/p>\n
\"We will need good coordination before embarking on the
\nvaccination drive,\" he said.<\/p>",
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