July 13, 2006

Indonesia fires top animal health official

Indonesia fired its top animal health official for failing to crack down on bird flu, a media report said Thursday (Jul 13). 

Sjamsul Bahri had been director of animal health at the agriculture ministry since September 2005. Since then, bird flu has infected poultry across the sprawling country and is now endemic, officials say.

Agriculture Minister Anton Apiyanto told Koran Tempo daily that Bahri was fired because of his poor performance.

Indonesia is logging new cases faster than any other nation and experts say that so long as the virus remains endemic in poultry populations, humans will continue to contract the disease.

The country has been criticized for not routinely culling fowl in infected areas, the best way to stop the H5N1 virus from spreading. The government says it does not have enough money to compensate farmers.

Bird flu has killed at least 130 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization's figures.

Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that makes it more easily transmissible among humans.