Govt rejects UN report on bird flu spread

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.