Bird flu isolates in S. Sulawesi, W. Java

Bird flu isolates in S. Sulawesi, W. Java

Rendi A. Witular and Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar/Jakarta

The government is taking steps to isolate outbreaks of avian
influenza, or bird flu, in South Sulawesi and West Java.

The South Sulawesi Husbandry Agency took samples from 25,500
chickens found dead in the past week in five regencies -- Wajo,
Soppeng, Sidenreng Rapang, Pinrang and Maros -- and sent the
samples to laboratories in Makassar, Bogor and Yogyakarta. Tests
confirmed the chickens died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

"However, we have yet to determine how many of the chickens
died from bird flu, because we also suspect some of them died
from Newcastle disease," South Sulawesi Husbandry Agency head
Arifin Sarsa said during a hearing with the provincial
legislative council on Wednesday.

Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said on Wednesday
after a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace in Jakarta that his
ministry had confirmed the presence of bird flu in South
Sulawesi.

"The ministry has confirmed new cases of bird flu in South
Sulawesi after the virus resurfaced in West Java earlier this
year. The virus in South Sulawesi may have come from West Java,"
he said.

He said husbandry agencies in the two provinces had stopped
the flow of chickens into and out of affected areas to stop the
virus from spreading to other regencies and provinces.

Anton said the agencies had destroyed infected chickens and
vaccinated unaffected ones. He also said there were no
indications in South Sulawesi or West Java that the virus had
mutated.

At one poultry farm in Wajo regency, South Sulawesi, 1,300
chickens died of bird flu. In days, the virus had spread
throughout the regency, killing thousands more chickens.

To prevent the further spread of the virus, the regency
administration distributed 200,000 vaccines and sprayed the dead
chickens with disinfectant. The administration also banned people
from approaching poultry farms where bird flu had been detected.

During last year's bird flu outbreak, South Sulawesi remained
unaffected by the disease. The provinces most affected by the
2004 outbreak were Central Java, with bird flu detected in 17
regencies, East Java (13 regencies), Yogyakarta (6), Bali (5),
Lampung (3), West Java (3), Banten (1), South Kalimantan (1),
East Kalimantan (1) and Central Kalimantan (1).

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), bird flu is
an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the
influenza virus. Bird flu devastated the poultry industries of
numerous Asian countries last year.

In Indonesia, the government attempted to cover up bird flu in
2004 until the story appeared in the media, forcing the
government to launch a serious operation to fight the virus.

A WHO investigation has found that close contact with live,
infected poultry can cause bird-to-human transmission of avian
influenza. The organization said selling live poultry directly to
customers and slaughtering chickens at markets -- practices that
are commonplace in Indonesia -- should be discouraged because
this can increase the risk of infection.

WHO says that as long as chicken meat and eggs are cooked
properly -- at temperatures above 70 degrees Celsius -- they are
safe to consume.