December 20, 2005

 

Indonesia to launch bird flu monitoring operation in Jakarta
 

 

The Indonesian government would launch a H5N1 surveillance operation in Jakarta Thursday, intensifying its search in the capital for poultry infected with the bird flu virus.

 

The monitoring effort would include searches of private residences for infected poultry, Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said Tuesday.

 

"We will search houses and when we find positive (H5N1) cases in poultry, we will do culling," Apriyantono told reporters.

 

Detection of H5N1-infected poultry would prompt "selective culling" in affected areas, although the extent of that would depend on the severity of the outbreak, he said, without going into specifics.

 

Apriyantono said inspection teams would consist of both students and military personnel.

 

He did not provide any details of the cost and duration of the planned effort or the manpower involved.

 

The Indonesian government has resisted the idea of mass slaughter of poultry within a three-kilometre radius of any outbreak, saying it does not have enough funds to compensate affected farmers.

 

H5N1 is endemic in Indonesia's poultry stocks, and international health experts warn the country rivals Vietnam and Cambodia as a potential weak point in global efforts to prevent the development of a mutant H5N1 viral strain that could kill millions worldwide. So far, most of the victims had contact with infected birds.

 

Indonesia has recorded a total of nine human H5N1 fatalities out of a total of 14 confirmed cases since July, World Health Organization data indicates. All of those cases have occurred in or around Jakarta.

 

International health officials caution that relatively dense poultry populations in Indonesia's urban areas provide an ideal breeding ground for a potentially deadly H5N1 mutant virus.

 

Apriyantono said the surveillance campaign would eventually extend to the suburbs in Greater Jakarta, including Tangerang and Depok.