Bird flu hits Java and Bali
Jakarta (AsiaNews) The Ministry of Agriculture admitted yesterday that the H5N1 bird flu virus infected millions of chickens in East Java Province, killing 1.88 million poultry.
According to Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, director of Indonesia's Aninimal Health Department, there are no cases of human infection.
The news was released just a few hours Ministry of Agriculture spokesman, Hari Priyono, denied that the disease was spreading throughout the country, blaming Newcastle disease as the cause of death among chickens on Java and Bali islands. The general director of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Sofjan Sudarjat, said since November 4.7 million chickens have died of viral infection. Of these, 60% died of "Newcastle disease", an avian disease which affects especially chickens and 40% of a combination of the latter and the H5N1 virus.
Priyono said that prior to a massive culling of chickens in contaminated areas, it is first necessary to verify that the H5N1 virus is involved. Hence tests were conducted on chickens using serums from Great Britain and Australia, whose results will be ready on Wednesday or Thursday and will be distributed to international organizations. The minister of agriculture urged people not to panic and not to stop eating poultry and chicken eggs. A veterinary research panel was also formed to study why the virus has spread.
Regional World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman, Peter Cordingley, believes that a vaccine will not be available before six months. According to the WHO, persons infected with the virus must be quarantined so as to avoid coming into contact with people sick with the normal type of flu.
Meanwhile in Thailand the government's campaign to cull chickens is causing grave concern and losses for farmers, who are without proper compensation for damages. Days ago authorities began culling chickens, killing them by burying the birds alive. Farmers accuse the government of harming small farmers for the sake of the export industry, by covering up earlier the spread of the disease and hence preventing them for being able to taking any preventive measures.
The minister of agriculture, Newin Chidchob, said that the government is also dealing with problems, like a lack of volunteers and plastic bags in which chickens ordered to be culled are placed in addition to a lack of places to bury them.
In Bangladesh the alarm is rising for a disease of an unknown disease, which has killed at least 16 people. Dhaka health authorities made no statement regarding links between this disease and avian influenza. Meanwhile test specimens have been sent to the United State, health officials preferring to comment once test results were obtained.
The dangerous bird flu is spreading all over eastern and southeastern Asia, causing serious damage to economies and threatening to become more hazardous than the Sars virus. If it is confirmed that the virus can mutate, as the WHO expects, the disease will be able to transmit itself from man to man. After the initial explosion in many Vietnamese provinces, the H5N1 virus also spread to South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.
A less aggressive strain of the virus, H5N2, is under control in Taiwan and Hong Kong. On Wednesday, Jan. 28, ministers from countries struck by the epidemic as well as Thailand's main chicken importers (European Union and United States) will gather in Bangkok to try and find a unanimous solution to the crisis. (MH)
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