Bird flu endemic to Indonesia: OIE

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has declared Indonesia an endemic country for avian influenza, but the government is still determined to achieve its target of being free of bird flu by 2007, a minister says.

"It is a sad decision for us considering that bird flu cases are on the decline, especially since last year," Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said on Monday.

The OIE's declaration implies that Indonesia remains a country with a high risk for future outbreaks, he said.

Anton said that despite the disheartening OIE assessment, it would not deter the government from its drive to overcome and eliminate bird flu from the country.

"This will instead encourage us to fight bird flu even harder, be it by enhancing bio-security or isolation," he said, adding that the ministry had not revised its target of being bird-flu free by 2007.

According to data from the ministry, 16.2 million birds died of the virus last year, while from January to March of this year a reported 281,730 birds have died of the virus in 10 regencies in South Sulawesi, West Java and Central Java.

Responding to the ministry's discovery of the bird flu virus in pigs in Tangerang, Banten province, Anton said he had ordered all pigs on the contaminated farm to be slaughtered.

"We found the virus in small pig farms located next to poultry farms. To prevent similar cases, we have asked pig farms across the country to be relocated a certain distance away from any poultry farm," he said.