November 17, 2003

Outbreak of Chicken Disease in Indonesia Leads To Thailand & Philippines' Rejection of Poultry Imports

Thailand and the Philippines have rejected a supply of broiler day old chick (DOC) and hatching eggs from Indonesia after the reported outbreak of a chicken disease known as Velogenic Viscerotropic Newcastle Disease (VVND) in some areas in the country.

Indonesia's agriculture minister, Don. P. Utoyo, said the Thai and Philippines governments were afraid that the disease will spread to their countries.

However, no rejection was made by Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam, to which exports had been made almost at the same period, Utoyo said last weekend.

He said the country's production of broiler DOCs totaled 1.05 billion in the first nine months of this year.

He said vaccination has been made to eliminate the communicable disease.