Public egged on eat chicken amid bird flu scare

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration is encouraging people here to continue consuming chicken meat, which they say can still be eaten safely if well-cooked despite a bird flu outbreak in the area.

City Livestock, Fisheries and Maritime Agency animal product health division head Hery Indiyanto said over the weekend that chicken consumption in the city had dropped by more than half during the past few weeks.

"We need to assure the public that eating chicken is safe if the meat is cooked well. Currently, chicken consumption has dropped by about 60 percent following the media's frequent reports of the bird flu," Hery told The Jakarta Post.

Normally, Jakartans consumed some 600,000 pieces of chicken a day, down now to about 250,000 pieces, he said.

Chicken breeders, traders and many restaurants said the drop- off was hurting their businesses.

"Only two or three people ate chicken today. Usually, roasted and fried chicken are favorite dishes here," said Firman, an worker at a Padang restaurant in Palmerah, West Java, on Saturday.

Chicken breeders in Tangerang, meanwhile, have called on the central government take the necessary measures to ensure people's faith in chicken meat was restored.

The confirmation the recent deaths of a man and his two young daughters in Tangerang were from bird flu had caused sales to drop, he said, but the disease was not being explained properly.

Hery said people had a poor understanding of how the avian flu virus was contracted by humans.

Health officials should explain the public that the avian flu virus died at least 70 degrees Celsius cooking temperature, he said.

The virus, which can last in chicken bodies for up to seven days after death, is nearly impossible to contract through contact with chicken meat because it is only known to spread through contact with bird droppings, saliva and vomit of living but sick chickens. This means poultry workers who came into close contact with birds regularly are at risk and have been advised to wear masks, especially when culling sick birds.

People were also worried that the virus could spread from chickens to pigs and then go on to affect humans, Hery said.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and Indonesia's top veterinarian, Trisata Putri Naipospos, however, say there is no evidence that pigs have contracted the H5N1 strain here, dismissing earlier findings by a vet here that the virus had spread to pigs. They are urging the government and health authorities to focus efforts to combat the virus on poultry.

But health experts believe it is still important to monitor the health of pigs in connection with bird flu because the animals are genetically similar to people and often carried the human influenza virus.

The fear is that pigs infected with both bird flu and its human equivalent could act as a "mixing bowl," resulting in a more dangerous mutant virus that might spread to people more easily.

Hery said his agency had strengthened its monitoring on the capital borders where chicken from outside Jakarta entered. He said livestock officers would deny entry to those carrying out-of-town chickens unless they had proper health certificates for the birds.

He said most chickens consumed in Jakarta came from areas in Cianjur, Sukabumi, Garut, Purwakarta, Solo, Purwakerto and Yogyakarta.

According to the World Health Organization, avian influenza is an infectious disease in birds caused by type-A strains of the influenza virus.

In Indonesia, the avian flu viruses found are of the H5N1 type, similar to those found in China. While causing high fatalities in chickens, the virus is asymptomatic in migratory fowls such as ducks and birds.

Its infection in humans is made possible by a continuous mutation of micro-organisms. The virus is not airborne but can spread through droplets of feces, saliva or vomit within a radius of three meters. People can be infected if the virus enters through the nose and mouth.

WHO advises poultry farm owners to ensure their workers take appropriate precautions, wearing gloves and masks, especially those involved in culling infected birds.

It is also recommended to wet skin surfaces before direct contact with sick birds.

National Institute of Sciences molecular virology researcher Andi Utama said the virus' proteins could only enter cells of poultry, pigs or horses because of the characteristics of its chemical arrangement.

"The virus reacts with 2.3 stalic acid, while human cells contain 2.6 stalic acid," he said. Pigs had both chemical substances in their cells, thus enabling the potential for infections of both avian and human flu viruses, he said.

While the common human influenza virus is known to be transferable among humans but is not often fatal, the avian flu is highly pathogenic but non-transferable from human-to-human.

Andi said a precaution against an outbreak of flu were vaccinations. "They should be given both to pigs and poultry, as well as to humans," he said.

The Veterinary Research Agency has only developed vaccines for poultry, as the development of human vaccines is still difficult.

While freezing and refrigeration would not substantially reduce the concentration of the virus in contaminated meat, proper cooking at an internal temperature of at least 70 degrees Celsius will kill it.