No money for major cull: Govt
No money for major cull: Govt
Abdul Khalik and Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Only 31 pigs and 40 ducks infected with bird flu were slaughtered
on Sunday as the government reacted cautiously to the threat of
the flu spreading among humans.
The government had promised to conduct a mass cull of poultry
and pigs within a radius of three kilometers from a place where
an outbreak has occurred, in line with World Health Organization
recommendations.
Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono, who witnessed the
cull at a pig farm in Legok, Tangerang, Banten province, said the
government lacked the money to live up to its promise, although
he was aware of the possibility of a major outbreak.
The minor cull came after WHO officials warned that the virus
could mutate and mix with human influenza, creating a deadly,
easily transmittable, pandemic strain that could kill millions of
people, following the death of humans from the H5N1 avian
influenza strain in Indonesia.
It remains unknown, however, if three Tangerang residents --
Iwan Siswara Rafei, an official at the Supreme Audit Agency
(BPK), and his two daughters -- had contracted the virus from
pigs.
Anton said the government was conducting surveillance in many
areas across the country.
"We found that only a few pigs and ducks have been infected
with bird flu virus on two farms in Legok and Panongan. We only
culled the infected animals as we don't have the money to carry
out a mass cull," he said.
Anton said the government would need Rp 800 billion (US$84.2
million) to carry out a mass cull, while his ministry, for
instance, had only Rp 104 billion in contingency funds.
The lack of money has resulted in the government only culling
visibly ill poultry, with the remainder being vaccinated.
Anton said that the ministry had allocated half of the money
in its contingency fund to paying for the vaccination program and
to compensate farmers whose animals have been culled.
"We will, however, continue to closely monitor the situation
in the affected areas and conduct surveillance tests for a month
to see if more animals are infected. If we find more infected
animals, we will cull them. We have also declared this an
epidemic-affected zone," he said.
The government has so far provided 140.2 million doses of
vaccine.
The deputy chairman of the House budget committee, Bursah
Zarnubi, said his committee had not received any request from the
agriculture ministry for emergency funds to tackle bird flu, but
asserted that the committee would approve any such request when
it reconvened on Monday to discuss the 2006 state budget and
emergency allocation requests.
On Saturday, Minister of Health Siti Fadillah Supari said it
was still not known how the three Tangerang people who died of
avian influenza had contracted the deadly virus.
"There is a missing link. We still can't say if the virus came
from chickens or pigs. Our investigators from the ministry and
those from WHO are still trying to trace it," Siti said.
Siti reiterated that the deadly H5N1 strain of the flu had not
mutated and could not be transmitted between humans.
Determining how the victims contracted the virus would allow
health workers to prevent it from spreading to other people.
Siti said that the government had designated 44 hospitals
across the country to treat bird flu patients and act as response
centers to any further outbreaks. The public could report cases
of the disease by calling (021) 4257125 during office hours, and
0819189720 or 0812103886 outside of office hours.
She said the government would not charge patients who came
down with the virus as long as they sought treatment at one of
the designated hospitals.