Japan provides US$200,000 grant to fight bird flu<\/p>\n
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Japanese government has provided a grant of US$200,000 for
\nthe government of Indonesia to help fund the latter's efforts in
\ncombating bird flu.<\/p>\n
The grant, which is the first of its kind, was officially
\nhanded over during a signing and exchange of letters ceremony
\nhere on Friday between Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih
\nand Japanese Ambassador Yutaka Iimura, on behalf of their
\nrespective governments.<\/p>\n
\"Learning from the previous severe acute respiratory syndrome
\n(SARS) outbreak, mutual cooperation and help is essential in
\ncoping with the current bird flu pandemic,\" said Iimura, who also
\nmentioned that Japan itself was still struggling against the
\ndisease, which has caused severe economic losses to the poultry
\nindustry and raised widespread public concern.<\/p>\n
As further explained by the Japanese Embassy's secretary for
\neconomic affairs, Hitoshi Oikawa, the grant will be used to fund
\nthree projects for the prevention and eradication of bird flu in
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Out of the total grant, some $78,906 will be used to reduce
\nthe risk of human infection by providing protective clothes,
\nmasks, boots, gloves and goggles for high-risk workers, such as
\nfield veterinarians, medical workers and laboratory officers
\nduring vaccination and eradication activities in infected areas.<\/p>\n
Another $111,161 will be used for a public awareness campaign
\non bird flu, through the provision and distribution of booklets,
\nflyers, posters, video compact discs (CD) and radio spots.<\/p>\n
The other $9,709, meanwhile, has already been used to fund an
\nin-country workshop on the prevention and eradication of bird
\nflu, held jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Japan
\nInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA) last Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Previously, Indonesia also received a $390,000 grant from the
\nFood and Agriculture Organization (FAO) under a technical
\ncooperation program (TCP) to combat bird flu. The Asian
\nDevelopment Bank (ADB) had also allocated $800,000 for countries
\naffected by bird flu in the region, including Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Bungaran said that the government itself had
\nprovided an emergency fund of Rp 215 billion ($25.6 million) for
\nsmall farmers whose poultry had been destroyed under the mass-
\nculling program.<\/p>\n
Bungaran also said that the government had distributed about
\n50 million doses of bird flu vaccine -- 11 million of them for
\nfree -- throughout the country.<\/p>\n
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that the total
\nnumber of poultry deaths from September 2003, when the outbreak
\nfirst occurred, to February 2004 reached 6.2 million -- 400,000
\nof them as the result of mass culling.<\/p>\n
No less than 84 districts in 11 provinces had been affected by
\nan outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus strain as of March 2004.<\/p>\n
\"Although we are now seeing a decrease in poultry deaths,
\nthere are still new outbreaks like the recent one in West
\nKalimantan,\" said Bungaran, adding that the disease had created
\ngreat difficulties for small farmers.<\/p>\n
\"What we therefore need now is to encourage the public to
\nconsume poultry again, and recover the 20 percent drop in poultry
\nprices to prevent the farmers from going out of business,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/japan-provides-us200000-grant-to-fight-bird-flu-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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