Chickens die from mysterious plague

Chickens die from mysterious plague

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post/Yogyakarta

Farmers in Yogyakarta's Sleman regency have complained over the
weekend that thousands of their chicken have died due to an
unidentified disease in the past few days.

Apart from inflicting millions of rupiah in losses on farmers
in the region, the outbreak of the mysterious viral disease, has
discouraged them from breeding.

The farmers, which are still baffled by the outbreak, said
that the disease killed chickens at a rapid pace. "The first
outbreak occurred five days ago. The chickens looked fine in the
morning, but later in the afternoon, they had died. The outbreak
is so severe that most chickens in our village have died," Anto,
one of farmer in Pakem, Sleman told The Jakarta Post.

He said that the most immediate symptoms of the illness were
that the chickens salivated and died in hours. "Fluid also comes
out of the chickens' anus. It was like people suffering from
diarrhea," Anto said.

An official with Hargobinagun subdistrict office Kisno said
that the mysterious disease had cast a specter over five villages
in Pakem district, Candibinangun, Harjobinagun, Pakembinangun,
Purwobinagun and Hargobinangun.

"In Hargobinangun alone there are over a 1,000 households that
breed chickens. Each has at least 15 chickens," he said, adding
that the 30 chickens he bred had also died.

Kisno said that the outbreak of the mysterious disease had
added to the farmers' woes who had yet to recover from the bird
flu scare.

"Bird flu had killed most of the farmers' chickens. And the
new disease appeared right when the farmers started the poultry
business all over again," he said.

Kisno said that the recent outbreak had discouraged farmers.
"People here are still traumatized by bird flu," he said.

Contacted separately, head of the poultry division of Sleman
agriculture agency Suwadi Azis said that his office had not
received any reports from poultry farmers on the disease
outbreak. "We haven't received any reports from the farmers,
therefore we can't theorize about what caused the disease," he
said.

However, Suwadi said that the symptoms might indicate
Newcastle Disease.

"If that is the disease, we already have the vaccine to
prevent the further spread of the disease," he said.

However, he said that the distribution of the vaccine would be
difficult, as the chickens were bred by individual households,
Suwadi said.

"We will need good coordination before embarking on the
vaccination drive," he said.