JP/5/FLU

Vaccination drive planned as bird flu returns

ID Nugroho Surabaya/Jakarta

Bird flu, which ravaged the poultry industry in Asia several months ago, has resurfaced in several parts of Indonesia, killing thousands of chickens on Java island.

The government announced on Wednesday plans to launch a massive vaccination drive in an effort to curb the spread of avian flu.

Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, animal health director at the Ministry of Agriculture, said his office would distribute as many as 300 million doses of vaccine to poultry farms.

The campaign follows reports that thousands of chickens have died in eastern Java in July.

"We can say that there have been new cases in several districts in East Java," Naipospos was quoted by AP as saying.

"By vaccinating chickens, we can reduce the mortality rates and reduce the spread of the virus," she added.

Indonesia joins Vietnam, China and Thailand in experiencing a resurgence of bird flu in the past month.

Earlier this year, the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu swept through Asia, ravaging the poultry industry and killing 24 people in Thailand and Vietnam.

More than 100 million chickens and ducks across the region were slaughtered, including upward of 10 million in Indonesia.

During the outbreak in February, Jakarta came under heavy criticism for failing to alert the public to the threat, and for being slow to respond with a mass cull and other measures to contain the disease.

In East Java, poultry breeders have seen hundreds of their chickens die in just the last week due to what is suspected to be bird flu.

The concern is particularly acute in Kedungwaru, Tulungagung regency, where the population of free-range, egg-laying and stock chickens is about four million.

During the previous outbreak, some 4.7 million chickens died from bird flu in East Java, with Malang, Tulungagung, Blitar, Gresik and Lamongan to worst affected areas.

However, East Java husbandry office head Sigit Hanggono denied on Tuesday that avian flu had returned.

He said the sudden deaths of hundreds of chickens in Tulungagung had nothing to do with bird flu but was the result of an illegally imported vaccine used by farmers.

"Many farmers here have been using the vaccine even though it is actually not suitable for fowls, and that is why many chickens have died," Sigit said.

His denial was challenged by the chairman of East Java's Indonesian Fowl Breeders Association, Paul Iskandar, who said that there was indeed a resurgence of bird flu. "Despite not being as extensive as before, the virus has spread to several poultry farms in East Java."

He acknowledged, however, that many breeders said they were still not certain about what was killing their chickens.

Poultry breeders are trying to downplay the problem because they are afraid people will stop buying their chickens, Paul said.

He said their was no basis for blaming the chickens' deaths on the illegally imported vaccine, arguing that the vaccine was a viable alternative for farmers.

The farmers are choosing to buy the illegally imported vaccine because the legal vaccine is being sold too expensively in the local market, he said, while urging the government to legalize the imported vaccine.

Paul said East Java was home to 10,000 poultry farmers and required 120 million doses of vaccine for three stages of vaccination per year, while the Pusvetma pharmaceutical center could only provide 4.6 million doses per year.