February 1, 2007

 

Indonesia to declare bird flu a national disaster

 

 

Indonesia will declare bird flu a national disaster, giving the government access to special funds to combat the disease that has killed 63 people nationwide, the planning minister said Wednesday (Jan 31).

 

"It has become an epidemic," Paskah Suzetta told reporters in the capital, where authorities were preparing for the compulsory slaughter of thousands of backyard chickens as part of high profile efforts to fight the H5N1 virus.

 

"The president has indicated he will declare it a national disaster so money can be allocated from the state budget's disaster fund."

 

Bird flu is now endemic in chickens almost all over the country and, despite optimism late last year that it may have been contained, it has killed six people in the last month.

 

Many of the 63 people who have died lived near the teeming capital, home also to more than 100,000 backyard chickens, ducks, doves and song birds.

 

Authorities, who gave residents weeks to voluntarily get rid of their birds, will go door to door in some neighbourhoods Thursday to make sure the order was carried out, said Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso.

 

"I will show no tolerance," he said after meeting with mayors, health and husbandry officials. "Chickens found running loose will be immediately killed, the sick ones thrown into a fire and the healthy ones given to owners to be fried and eaten."

 

The effectiveness of the slaughter campaign remains to be seen, however, amid fears that many residents will hide their birds or that corrupt officials will be susceptible to bribes. It will also have to reach well beyond the capital.

 

Past efforts to carry out mass culls have failed in part because the cash-strapped government said it could not afford to compensate bird owners. By declaring the disease a national disaster, it would no longer have such excuses.