Biosecurity, vaccine screenings prioritized for avian flu

Biosecurity, vaccine screenings prioritized for avian flu

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Agriculture is prioritizing increased biosecurity
and vaccinations over mass culling programs in a bid to prevent
an avian flu outbreak.

"We will check our current stock of locally made vaccines
because substandard ones could actually spread the virus and
worsen the situation," ministry director of animal health Sjamsul
Bahri said on Thursday.

Avian flu vaccines must meet a certain minimum standard since
they are made of unstable, inactivated viruses that if concocted
wrong could infect poultry and widen the outbreak.

The move comes after reports detailing local firms with
government licenses skimping on ingredients for the polio vaccine
and creating substandard medicines that did not protect children.

"Vaccinations should also have been followed up by monitoring
procedures afterwards. Vaccine producers often neglect this, and
the ministry should remind them of it," said a veterinarian with
the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, Darjono, in a
discussion.

Sjamsul said that currently there were only seven legal
vaccine producers and distributors in the country. "Two of them
are importers from Mexico and China," he said.

Local vaccine producers are PT Vaksindo Satwa Nusantara, PT
Medion Farma Nusantara, Pusvetma, the Veterinary Research Agency
and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture's School for
Veterinarians.

Sjamsul said vaccinations and promoting biosecurity were the
ministry's top priorities, while mass culling remained a last
resort because of financial constraints.

The ministry has allocated Rp 134 billion (US$13.27 million)
this year to conduct it's anti-bird flu campaign but says any
mass culling in infected areas would require more than that
budget.

A small cull of livestock late July in Tangerang, saw pigs and
chickens slaughtered, burned and buried.

In Thailand, meanwhile, thousands of infected chickens were
placed in closed containers filled with carbon monoxide gas
before they were buried in disinfected mass graves.

The domestic poultry industry has suffered around Rp 700
billion in losses since the outbreak began in 2003. As of
September 2005, there were 143 regencies in 22 provinces declared
as infected areas.

As the disease is highly contagious, potential future losses
could reach around Rp 1.8 trillion as the country's poultry
population stands at 100 million.

"Our most feasible procedure would be to maintain high
biosecurity," said Sjamsul. The use of disinfectant and masks was
a must among people who had a lot of contact with poultry, he
said.

For biosecurity measures in larger poultry businesses, science
company DuPont Indonesia, a subsidiary of the U.S. based E.I.
DuPont, launched on the same day a disinfectant product, Virkon
S.

The ministry also plans to launch on Oct. 16 a campaign for
healthier backyard farming with the Ministry of Health and the
Jakarta city's support.

Most people who have contracted bird flu here were found to
have be living in areas with backyard farms. Backyard farming is
a common practice in traditional households.

Five Indonesians are confirmed to have contracted the virus,
of which three of them have died. Health authorities say five
others are strongly suspected of having the virus. Their test
samples have been sent to a clinic in Hong Kong for confirmation.