March 24, 2004

 

 

FAO Sees Indonesia Bird Flu Struggle Lasting Several More Months

 

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes that the bird flu outbreak in Indonesia is likely to last for several more months.

 

"Indonesia is facing a difficult task in fighting the virulent avian flu virus," according to a press release issued by FAO regional office to Asia and the Pacific.

 

Though affirming that the Indonesian government had made "significant efforts" to battle the epidemic, the document noted that "the magnitude of the outbreak is stretching the government services to their limits."

 

The official death toll of chickens has been estimated at 6.2 million and the number of chickens culled is estimated at 2.5 million, while FAO estimated that around 15 million chickens have died or have been culled in Indonesia.

 

The disease is widespread in the country's main center of poultry industry in Java and continues to spread to other parts.

 

Control over movement of livestock and livestock products was believed to be one of the key measures to contain the disease in Indonesia.

 

"Due to inadequate resources the government is not able to fully implement appropriate measures to prevent the movement of animals, poultry products, equipment, personnel, feed and vehiclesfrom affected farms, sub-districts, districts, provinces and islands," the FAO document quoted the Animal Health Service Chief Joseph Domenech as saying.

 

Besides, FAO also urged closer collaboration among vaccine manufacturers, animal health services and poultry producers so as to curb the spread of the epidemic.

 

FAO also called on international community to provide help and assistance to help Indonesia walk out current bird flu crisis.

 

In a related movement, Japan agreed to support Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam with 1.6 million US dollars to fight the epidemic.