January 11, 2013

Indonesian poultry farmers lose billions due to bird flu

Due to the death of some ducks exposed to avian influenza (AI) or bird flu, Local Poultry Farmers Association (Himpuli) of Indonesia claimed a loss of IDR17.5 billion (US$1.8 million) calculated from the end of 2012.

Ade Meirizal Zulkarnain, Chairman of Himpuli said the loss does not include the value of the loss of potential duck eggs. Losses of eggs are estimated to reach IDR147 billion (US$15 million). "To this day the farmers have a great loss due to the death of this duck," Ade said on Wednesday (Jan 9).

Since the loss, the farmer plans to seek compensation from the government and the House of Representatives Commission IV. According to Ade, the compensation amount according to the duck production costs were destroyed (affected by depopulation).

Based on data from the Directorate of Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture, dated January 7, 2013, the number of ducks that died from bird flu reached 242,368. This amount increases the amount of data than the end of December at 190,000 tails.

There are 172,000 birds exposed to data depopulation, until January 7, 2013. Before, ducks attacked by bird flu outbreak occurred in 60 districts and 9 provinces, now bird flu in ducks occurs in 69 districts and 11 provinces.

The greatest number of ducks' deaths occurred in Central Java as much as 148,176 head followed by East Java as many as 33,261 birds.