The bird flu scare

After months of keeping silent, the government finally admitted during the weekend that the millions of chickens that had died in Java, Bali and several other parts of the country in the past few months had perished of bird flu -- the feared avian influenza that could also be fatal to humans, as several cases in China, Vietnam, Korea and elsewhere have shown. On the island of Java alone, about 10 million birds are estimated to have died of the disease since October last year.

But why the months of official silence?

Sofjan Sudardjat, Director General for the Development of Animal Husbandry at the Ministry of Agriculture, has this possible explanation: Between September and November of last year, the outbreak was already widespread. However, there was no evidence that the disease had spread to humans. In the months since September, some 4.7 million hens have died, at least 400 farms have been affected, and several people in Vietnam and elsewhere have died. But Vietnam, China and Korea seem a safe distance away. Furthermore, at least in the eyes of scientists and officials, Indonesians can take comfort in the knowledge that they are more or less immune to the disease, being racially closer to the African races than the Mongoloid, who seem to be more susceptible to the avian flu virus.

Be that as it may, the authorities began taking the public health hazard posed by this latest epidemic seriously, only after the East Java chapter of the Indonesian Association of Veterinarians (PDHI) confirmed that the deaths of millions of layer hens in East Java and several other areas of the country were caused by the bird flu virus. That statement effectively shot down the government's attestations that the birds died of Newcastle disease, which is usually fatal to chickens, but harmless to humans.

In the final analysis, of course, the government's silence on the matter appears incomprehensible and irresponsible, to put it mildly. It also tends to give rise to speculations and conspiracy theories that may be farfetched, even sinister, yet cannot be easily refuted. Marthen Malole, a veterinarian researcher at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, for example, said that the government had refused to make the disease public because of pressure from certain multinational companies that feared their operations and exports would be disrupted. In Malole's words, "the government was prevented from publicly announcing the disease immediately because of a businessmen's lobby."

The big question that is now on the lips of many lay people and scientists alike is, is the current bird flu outbreak simply a disaster in the business sense, or is it the first sign of something worse to come? Given the known ability of viruses to mutate, the world may be facing yet another serious pandemic on a scale not seen before. For certain, however, the economic implications of a possible serious bird flu outbreak should not be overlooked. Indonesian researchers have confirmed that they have identified the H5N1 virus, which is harmful to both humans and birds and, according to the WHO, is known to be capable of mutating rapidly.

In conclusion, there is no time to loose in fighting the current bird flu outbreak in this country with all the means at our disposal. Unfortunately, that may mean the destruction of the stock on hand. But the question is not one of which must be protected first: businesses or consumers. In the long run, it is by imparting a sense of safety among consumers that the farming business can be ensured a prolonged existence.