Govt rejects UN report on bird flu spread
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Refuting the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announcement on Monday, the Ministry of Agriculture asserted on Tuesday that avian influenza cases in Indonesia were declining rather than increasing.
The ministry stated that among the 11 provinces that had previously reported bird flu cases, five provinces reported zero cases in February, while only 14 regencies were affected, down from 51 last month.
In addition, the total number of chickens dying of bird flu dropped to 1.2 million in January and to 966,000 in February after reaching the highest level of 1.6 million in December last year, an official at the ministry told The Jakarta Post.
"It is true that West Kalimantan was added to the list recently, but Banten, Jakarta, West Java, South Kalimantan, and Lampung have not reported any cases in February," said Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, the Director of Animal Health at the ministry, in response to the FAO report.
According to data from the ministry, the six provinces that reported bird flu cases in February were Central Java with 527,319 cases, Yogyakarta, 31,075 cases, East Java, 65,161 cases, Bali, 333,268 cases, Central Kalimantan, 4,279 cases and West Kalimantan, 5,770 cases.
Tri denied that the disease had spread to other areas, such as Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, and West Timor as claimed by the FAO official, saying that there had been no reports from local officials confirming the presence of the disease.
"The ministry has ordered all local officials and farm owners to report each bird flu case so it would be impossible for us not to know of any new cases," she said.
A decree from the ministry stipulates that a citizen who deliberately fails to report a bird flu case will be punished under Decree No. 15/1977 on dangerous diseases.
An official from FAO said on Monday that bird flu cases had been spreading and increasing in Indonesia recently because government resources were stretched to the limit, while most countries experienced a slowdown.
Tri, however, acknowledged that her ministry lacked the funds and human resources to handle the nationwide outbreak. She complained that the small number of veterinarians nationwide made efforts to eradicate the disease even tougher, saying that many regencies had only one or two veterinarians.
"Although there was a verbal commitment from both the House of Representatives and the Ministry of Finance to allocate Rp 72 billion to import bird flu vaccines, we haven't received any money so far," she said.
Tri stated that vaccines had to be imported because many farmers were skeptical about locally produced vaccine. The farmers have refused to buy local vaccine.
As a result, she said, the government had to buy most of the local vaccine, and inoculate the chickens on infected farms for free.
"We must inoculate these chickens now otherwise the second round of the epidemic could hit Indonesia in April," she warned.