Govt sounds alert on bird flu recurrence

Govt sounds alert on bird flu recurrence

Tony Hotland, Jakarta

The government has warned that the country's poultry industry is
still vulnerable to avian influenza, even though no new
indication of a reoccurrence of the disease has been spotted.

Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih affirmed on Tuesday
that as yet there were no new signs of the disease -- popularly
known as bird flu -- but urged the country's poultry breeders to
be cautious.

"There are no signs detected yet, but we must stay alert,
especially when the wet season approaches ... the last outbreak
also occurred during the wet season," he said.

Poultry scientists have said that the H5N1 strain, the most
lethal strain of bird flu, mutates rapidly, particularly in cold
weather.

Bungaran said that the government would maintain its current
measures to prevent the disease from attacking the country again,
such as by regular vaccination and a ban on poultry products from
abroad.

The minister was responding to recent reports of a possible
new outbreak of the disease in Vietnam and Thailand, worst hit
during the outbreak earlier this year.

The two countries were the first areas where the bird flu
epidemic was initially detected late last year, resulting in the
death of at least 24 people and the culling of millions of
chickens across southeast Asia.

No human victims were reported in Indonesia, but at least 4.7
million chickens were slaughtered to prevent the further spread
of the disease.

Bungaran added that the government spent up to Rp 70 billion
(US$7.77 million) on vaccine and public service announcements in
the mass media.

The government previously promised to allocate around Rp 212
billion in vaccine and compensation for small farmers whose
poultry had to be destroyed as part of a selective culling
program.

"The poultry industry is still vulnerable because the virus
can strike again. It will take a clear period of three years
since the occurrence of the last case before we can announce to
the public that we are completely free of the disease," Bungaran
added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the H5N1
strain has the potential to kill millions of people if it
combined with a human influenza virus to create a new, highly
contagious strain transmissible among humans.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Indonesian Poultry Breeders
Association Anton J. Supit said that Thailand's fresh ban on
poultry imports from Indonesia would not have a serious impact.

"We neither export nor import chickens to a significant
degree. Almost all production is for domestic demand. Even if we
did, it would be a very small percentage," he told The Jakarta
Post.