Jakarta opts for selective bird cull

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration plans to introduce selective culls of birds and chickens in areas where bird flu is detected, an official said on Thursday.

The head of the animal and husbandry unit at the Jakarta Husbandry Agency, Adnan Ahmad, said his office had collected over 1,000 samples since July from across the capital to determine the extent to which the bird flu virus had spread among birds and chickens in the city.

"We have taken as many samples as we can from across the city. If we find samples from a certain area test positive for bird flu, then we will decide which birds and chickens need to be culled," he told The Jakarta Post.

Adnan said so far only samples from Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta, a neighborhood in Cempaka Putih in East Jakarta and a bird market in Depok had tested positive for bird flu.

He said his office was now focusing on birds and chickens in those three areas.

"We tested all of the chickens in the areas and then selected which birds and chickens were to be destroyed. For instance, when we found that 19 birds in Ragunan Zoo were infected with bird flu, we isolated them and tested the rest of the animals.

"We decided to treat the rare birds because they are very expensive. In the end, we only destroyed five birds and were able to treat the other 14," Adnan said.

He said his office was cooperating with the Ministry of Agriculture to finance the selective culls.

Adnan said conducting mass culls were not feasible at the moment, not only because only three samples had tested positive for bird flu but also because of the huge sums of money that would be required.

Citing a lack of funds, the government continues to refuse to conduct mass culls in areas where chickens have been found infected with bird flu. This despite a recent offer from the World Bank for money to conduct mass culls.

The international standard for mass culls requires that all chickens and birds within a radius of three kilometers of an infected farm be destroyed.

The Ministry of Agriculture has so far allocated just Rp 241 billion (US$24.2 million) to fight bird flu.

The government says it will need at least $130 million to control the current outbreak of the virus.

Aside from budgetary constraints, bird flu containment in Indonesia is made more difficult by the fact that many people in the cities, especially Jakarta, raise chickens and birds in their backyards.

Adnan said his office had launched an informational program to teach residents about the importance of keeping all bird cages clean and of vaccinating their animals.

"Beside bird and chicken markets, we have expanded the program to numerous neighborhoods. However, we need more resources to continue the program," he said.

There have been nine confirmed cases of bird flu in humans in Indonesia, and five of these people have died. Initial tests on a girl who died last Tuesday indicate she died of bird flu, but further tests are needed to confirm this.