October 27, 2005

Indonesia investigates possible bird flu cases in Bali
 

Indonesia was investigating the deaths of dozens of backyard chickens on the resort island of Bali Wednesday amid fears they may have had bird flu, officials and residents said.

"It's too early to say if this is bird flu," said Ida Bagus Raka, the chief of Bali's animal husbandry department, after visiting Padang Sambian, a village on the outskirts of the island's capital Denpasar.

Though villagers say more than 25 previously healthy birds have dropped dead in the last five days, Raka said it is possible they had Newcastle disease, which is not dangerous to humans.

Samples have been sent to a lab for testing, he said. It was not immediately clear when the results would come back.

Residents in Padang Sambian said their backyard chickens suddenly started falling sick last week, turning blue and frothing at the beak before dying.

"We don't know what the cause is, but we're afraid," said Ni Komang Santini, who has lost eight of her nine chickens. The same thing happened to several of her neighbors' flocks, she said.

The H5N1 strain of the bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter of millions of birds in Indonesia since 2003, including 600,000 chickens on Bali last year.

It has also jumped to humans killing four people in the sprawling archipelago since June, although none of them on the resort island.