Limited response to bird flu derided by veterinarians

Limited response to bird flu derided by veterinarians

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Surabaya

Although the President has instructed a selective cull of all
chickens infected by bird flu, veterinarians here maintained that
only a mass cull of all chickens would be effective in fending
off an uncontrollable outbreak of bird flu in the country.

The belated decision issued on Wednesday by President Megawati
Soekarnoputri was a sigh of relief for the Jakarta office of the
World Health Organization (WHO).

However, deputy dean of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture's
School of Veterinary Studies, Wayan Teguh Wibawan, said a mass
cull would be the most effective measure, despite predicted
losses from destroying the country's population of 135 million
chickens.

Other veterinarians have raised similar views.

The government, Wayan added, "should make a guideline to
handle the outbreak of the bird flu and build inter-department
coordination for this purpose."

The government has stopped well short of destroying all
chickens, citing inadequate funds. Minister of Agriculture
Bungaran Saragih has requested Rp 212 billion (US$24.9 million)
in emergency funds to finance the limited operation. The Asian
Development Bank has allocated a total of $800,000 for countries
affected by bird flu in the region (not for each country as
reported earlier).

Agence-France Presse quoted the WHO technical officer in
Jakarta, Steven Bjorge, as saying that a partial cull on farms
where infected chickens were found would be ineffective.

The WHO recommends that all birds within a radius of three
kilometers of any outbreak should be destroyed to prevent further
spread of the disease to healthy chickens.

While Indonesia has yet to report any confirmed case of bird
flu in humans as in neighboring countries, WHO authorities fear
the possibility of the virus mutating into one that spreads among
defenseless humans.

A team from the Ministry of Health has taken random blood
samples from 100 people who work with live poultry, particularly
those with symptoms of influenza.

"The results will come out in two or three days," Azimal of
the 42-member team said. The team deployed to 10 provinces is the
same group previously tasked with making preparations to deal
with an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Director for the development of animal husbandry, Tata
Trisatyaputri, said culling would only be carried out in regions
where infections were new and only in isolated areas.

She added that the government would only provide vaccinations.
She claimed that mass culling would cause widespread social
unrest.

Meanwhile, chairman of the East Java Poultry Business
Association (PPUI), Paul Iskandar, agreed with the government's
move not to conduct a mass cull.

"Healthy chickens should be vaccinated, while dead or infected
chickens should be burned to prevent further spread of the
disease," Paul said.

He said currently the East Java Animal Husbandry office has
examined poultry farms in Pandaan, Pasuruan, Blitar and other
areas in East Java. However, the office has not announced the
number of infected chickens that would be killed.

Paul urged the government to issue certificates to disease-
free poultry farms. These were crucial so people would know which
chickens were safe to eat, he said.

On Friday evening, an official said the much-awaited serum to
test the avian influenza virus here was expected to arrive from
England within hours.

"The serum will be used to find out the subtypes of avian flu
we have here," head of the veterinary laboratory of the Minister
of Agriculture, Darminto said.

Director of the veterinary community health of the Minister of
Agriculture, Bachtiar Moerad, said the test would be more to find
out the possibility of other subtypes or variants of the virus
here, as well as the deadly H5N1, which affects humans.

The testing will begin in a laboratory in Gunung Sindur,
Bogor, West Java, on Saturday morning.