Poultry disease wipes out 2.8 million chickens
Poultry disease wipes out 2.8 million chickens
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
The outbreak of a highly contagious poultry virus that swept
through West Java's two major chicken suppliers have killed 2.8
million young chickens in the first quarter of this year, an
official at the West Java husbandry agency said on Wednesday.
Head of the agency's veterinary division Musny Suatmojo said
his office had isolated the virus, which caused the incurable
Marek's disease, to prevent it from spreading to other regencies
from Ciamis and Tasikmalaya.
Experts assured the public that the disease does not affect
humans.
"This is the biggest case ever in the history of agriculture
here. We are still examining the factors that cause it as we
usually only have one or two cases," Musny told a hearing with
the West Java Provincial Legislative Council's Commission B for
economic affairs.
"Several chickens are still infected, but the number of cases
is rapidly decreasing," he added.
Ciamis and Tasikmalaya are the centers for chicken breeding,
which produce over 19 million broilers weekly, mostly for the
Jakarta market.
Marek's disease produces cancer in poultry and is
characterized especially by the proliferation of lymphoid cells
and is caused by a herpes virus.
The disease was named after Joszef Marek, a Hungarian
veterinarian who first discovered the illness in 1907.
The disease, Musny said, entered Indonesia about 1960 when
chickens were imported into the country.
Infected animals have a loss in appetite, are lethargic and
have a high body temperature.
It usually infects poultry between the ages of three weeks and
four months, whose immunity is low because of bad weather,
commonly during the transitional periods between the dry and
rainy seasons.
Chickens are usually sent to markets when they are one-and-a-
half months old.
Musny assured the public that the disease was not a zoonosis
one, meaning it could not be passed on to humans.
He said that his office had instructed breeders to burn every
infected chicken and sterilize the coops for 50 days to 90 days
to isolate the virus.
In an attempt to prevent further spread of the virus, which
does not have a vaccine yet, the husbandry agency has distributed
vaccines for Newcastle disease as well as Gumboro's disease.
Chairman of the West Java chapter of the Association of
National Chicken Breeders (PPAN) Dedi Dermawan said that there
was limited spread of the virus although there is a possibility
of its return.
He said the disease had caused Rp 19 billion (US$21 million)
in losses to breeders.