October 26, 2004

Thousands of Fowls Died of Bird Flu in Indonesia's Java Island

Thousands of fowls have died of bird flu in a district in Indonesia's main island of Java in the past month, the state Antara news agency said on Monday.

The outbreak in Pandeglang district has prompted local authorities to order the vaccination of fowls, Antara said.

"It can be concluded that the chickens and other birds have died of bird flu," Cahyan Sofyan, the district head of the animal husbandry office, was quoted as saying.

Sofyan did not say what strain of bird flu virus killed the poultry.

The World Health Organization said earlier this month that the strain of bird flu which has killed millions of birds in Indonesia was potentially deadly to humans.

It said an earlier statement by an Indonesian agriculture ministry official, that the virus found there was a non-lethal type, had been inaccurate.

The agriculture ministry has said test results from a Hong Kong center with which the WHO collaborates showed the H5N1 bird flu strain found in Indonesia was of a genotype that does not infect humans.

Millions of poultry died in a bird flu outbreak in Indonesia early this year.

Officials said the virus resurfaced because farmers had neglected procedures to combat it, using illegal vaccines and restocking their poultry too early.

The WHO says the most important control measures are rapid destruction of all infected or exposed birds, proper disposal of carcasses, and the quarantining and rigorous disinfection of farms.