JP/5/bird
Bird flu may have spread throughout C. Java
Suherdjoko The Jakarta Post/Semarang
Bird flu, which last week killed hundreds of chickens in Grobogan regency, Central Java, is suspected to have spread to several other areas across the province in what is believed to be a new outbreak.
The provincial health office has, meanwhile, dispatched a team to examine the Grobogan breeders' health to determine if they were contaminated by the deadly virus.
Central Java husbandry office head Sugiyono Pranoto said on Wednesday that his staff had this week sent samples of dead chickens from poultry breeders in the neighboring regencies of Brebes and Kendal to the province's veterinary agency for an examination.
The tests were carried out in order to find their cause of death, he explained.
"We don't know the results of the tests yet. For sure, the deaths of chickens in Grobogan were bird flu cases, but the cases in Kendal and Brebes are still being investigated," Sugiyono said.
He confirmed that the virus had attacked domestic fowls across Central Java between August 2003 and July 2004.
Bird flu resurfaced in the province last month, killing more than 350 chickens in Grobogan a week ago.
Data for the period from August 2003 to July 2004 from the Ministry of Agriculture showed that Central Java had been hit hardest by the outbreak over the past year, which killed over eight million birds in at least 27 regencies.
The worst regencies were Cilacap, where some two million chickens or other fowl were killed, Klaten with 1.5 million, Boyolali with 1.13 million and Sragen with 1.01 million.
Lampung was second with around 2.3 million dead, followed by West Java, Bali, Central, South and West Kalimantan, South and West Sumatra, Bengkulu, West Nusa Tenggara, Bangka Belitung Islands, Banten, Yogyakarta and Jakarta.
A total of 16,237,635 birds were killed in at least 104 regencies and cities in 16 provinces during the August 2003-July 2004 period, according to the ministry's report. The number was 9.02 percent of all domesticated fowl in those provinces.
Sugiyono said that he knew of no cure for bird flu-infected animals or humans.
"What we can do now is make an effort to prevent the spread of the virus by culling the infected birds and vaccinating the reminder. In addition, we will try to curb the movement of infected birds to other areas," he added.
Separately, Central Java health office deputy head, Budihardja, said that a medical team had been sent to Grobogan to examine whether local poultry breeders and other people were infected by the virus.
The team comprises three doctors from the Ministry of Health in Jakarta and three others from the Central Java health office, along with five experts from Gadjah Mada University and three others from the Salatiga veterinary research agency.
Among those examined by the team were around 100 breeders in Grobogan, Budihardja said. "So far we haven't found any cases of bird flu infecting people in Indonesia," he stated.
The same virus has reportedly killed a number of people in Vietnam and Thailand.