February 17, 2004

Indonesia Believes Good Sanitation Key To Driving Out Bird Flu

Good sanitation of chicken coops is the key in driving out the bird flu virus, while use of vaccines are only needed on farms already ravaged by the disease, Ghofir Hakim, chairman of the Indonesia chicken command post, said recently in a conference meeting.

"Visits to poultry farms should be reduced and farm tools, eggs and boxes must be cleaned with disinfectant to prevent the spread of the virus," Hakim said.

He said only 140,000 chickens of 1.2 million in Banyumas have been destroyed.

He said the bird flu began to attack chickens in that area in September but in October the attack was under control and the last case was found in December.

The government has passed order for the destruction of chickens found to have been attacked by the virus.