January 3, 2012

 

 

Backyards of Indonesian households with loose chickens have been pinpointed as the agents of avian flu virus H5N1 transmission to human.

 

The traditionally-run backyard poultry farms that supplies meat and eggs for the population make Indonesia one of the areas at the highest risk of exposure to avian flu in the world, a senior health ministry official said on Thursday (Dec 29).

 

Compared to industrial scale poultry farms run by major companies, backyard poultry farms often apply less adequate hygiene practices, infrequently disinfect chicken coops and place chicken cages too close to human settlements.

 

All of those put people living in surrounding areas at a higher risk of viral infection, Rita Kusriastuti, director of animal- borne infectious disease control at the Health Ministry said.

 

"It's not surprising that up to now we have had to stay alert on avian flu and might declare our country as a hot spot to bird flu because we haven't been able to manage good husbandry systems for those chickens," she said.

 

Even though it has learned that traditional poultry farms have the potential to transmit avian flu among the people, the ministry found it hard to ban the public to have such a farm because they depend on chicken for their food.

 

Rita added that figures of Indonesia's bird flu infections did not automatically mean that the country has no longer risk on that disease because chicken kept by residents in backyard farms had potential risk factors for transmitting the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1).

 

According to the data issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO), avian flu cases reached 566 with 332 deaths between 2003 and 2011 across the world.

 

In Indonesia alone, during this period, avian flu cases reached 179, resulting in 147 deaths in 13 provinces.

 

In 2005 the human infecting case was found in Serpong Tangerang when a man and his child infected by the H5N1 virus. It made them Indonesia's first human sufferers of the avian flu.

 

Indonesia saw its first deaths from the avian flu disease this year. Two children from Bangli regency in Bali died from the avian flu in October. Only nine cases of human infection from the H5N1 virus have been confirmed so far this year, including the two fatality cases in Bali.

 

Indonesia has signed an agreement on bird flu control, aimed at creating better influenza pandemic preparedness in the region. The agreement was signed by the leaders of Indonesia, the US and Singapore in Busan, South Korea, on November 18, 2005. Projects constituted in the agreement were set to terminate Friday this week.

 

Indonesia and the US signed an agreement on June 6, 2007 to establish Regional Emerging Diseases Intervention (REDI) Centre. The centre is a pilot partnership on avian influenza control located in Tangerang regency.