October 23, 2006

Indonesia to ban poultry in urban areas

Authorities in Indonesia has announced plans Friday (Oct 20) to ban city residents from keeping chickens and other poultry in their backyards.

Chickens roaming freely in urban residential areas are a common sight in Indonesia, the country with the highest number of human bird flu deaths in the world. 

Since cities in Thailand and Hong Kong have such laws to prevent the spread of bird flu, Indonesia should carry that out as well, Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said, adding that he felt human beings and poultry need to be separated.

Laws are afoot to require poultry in urban areas to be kept in cages, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said. 

Despite continued deaths from bird flu in the country, Indonesia's chief welfare minister Abrizal Bakrie said there were no indications that a pandemic brought about by human to human transmission of bird flu would happen anytime soon.

There has been no mutation and the spread is still from poultry to humans, he added, after ministers met to discuss bird flu developments.