'Govt, farmers have to stop the epidemic'

The lack of coordination between government and the regions in monitoring the health of meat and livestock has been exposed by the avian influenza -- or bird flu -- epidemic. Uncertainty over whether this airborne virus has spread to humans has prompted many residents to stop buying and eating chicken. The Jakarta Post talked to some city dwellers about how they dealt with the issue.

Eko Ari Wibowo, 26, is an account executive for an IT company in Harmoni, Central Jakarta. He lives in Ciledug, West Jakarta:

I'm not really worried about this avian flu thing, since from what I know of, the disease is still only spreading abroad, and there has been no confirmation yet of anybody in Indonesia contracting the disease.

Besides, I also read in the newspapers that people cannot contract the disease if they properly cook their eggs and chicken meat.

I've even eaten fast-food fried chicken meals three times this week, though my mother, who is very concerned about the matter, has been telling me not to eat chicken.

But what can I do, since I'm such a chicken meat aficionado?

Nyoman Sudarmadi, 40, is a manager of a bank at Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Central Jakarta. He lives in Bekasi, east of Jakarta:

The involvement of all related parties in taking preventive measures is what I think is badly needed to deal with the avian flu problem.

Chicken farmers, for example, should always make sure that their farms are clean enough to prevent a disease from breeding then spreading, and always monitor the health of their chickens.

If an outbreak such as bird flu or the more common Newcastle disease, or tetelo, should occur in their farms, it is they who will bear the loss.

Moreover, the government should also provide an adequate compensation scheme, like what governments in other countries do, if a mass culling of chickens is really needed to stop the spread of the disease.

That way, chicken farmers, especially the small-scale ones, would not feel reluctant about taking such measures, or feel left in the cold bearing all the economic losses.

--The Jakarta Post