Ragunan closed after 19 birds get avian flu
Ragunan closed after 19 birds get avian flu
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government has decided to close down Ragunan Zoo in South
Jakarta for 21 days starting Monday after they found 19 birds in
the zoo had been infected with avian flu.
Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriantono said that Governor
Sutiyoso had ordered the 140-hectare zoo to be closed after 19
out of 27 samples taken from various birds at the zoo tested
positive for bird flu.
"Yes, the zoo will be closed from Monday. Based on the
governor's instruction, the Jakarta animal husbandry agency and
Ragunan zoo management have agreed to its closure," he told The
Jakarta Post.
The minister said that among the birds that had tested
positive for bird flu were peacocks, mynahs, wild ducks, pigmy
chickens, eagles and herons.
Anton said that the zoo had to be closed to the public as the
infected birds needed to receive treatment. In addition, tests
had to be conducted on the other animals in the zoo.
He said that the infected birds would be destroyed if they
were not protected.
The minister said that two weeks would not be enough to be
able to decide whether the area was safe or not.
While confirming the closure of the zoo, its head of
recreation services, H. Supriyanto, said that the closure was
also needed to enable the government to test all of the zoo's
employees.
"The zoo has about 500 employees. However, only around half of
them work in the cages. These employees have direct contact with
the infected animals. The minister said that they should be
tested for bird flu," he told the Post.
However, Supriyanto stressed that all of the animals and
employees were in good health.
The minister did not say if the many thousands of people who
visited the zoo in the past few weeks should also undergo blood
tests.
Meanwhile, two children are suspected to have been infected
with the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. They were identified
as MG, 7, and S, 9.
MG, who lives with her family in Tangerang, and F, a close
relative of Rini Dina Prasetyaningsih, who died of the virus two
weeks ago, are now being treated at the Sulianti Saroso hospital
in Sunter, North Jakarta.
Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said that blood samples
from the two children had been sent to a World Health
Organization-sanctioned laboratory in Hong Kong early on Sunday.
"We sent the samples today to Hong Kong," she was quoted as
saying by Tempo News Room in Garut, West Java.
Rini, a resident at Petukangan Utara, South Jakarta, was the
fourth person to die of bird flu in Indonesia. In July, Iwan
Siswara and his two daughters, residents of Tangerang, Banten
province, died of the virus.