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Government Aware of The Bird Flu Virus

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

This post is also available in: Indonesian

JAKARTA. Alert against bird flu sounded again. This is because hundreds thousands of ducks in the central ducks livestock in Java died from the bird flu virus, the government began to prepare control measures.

Ministry of Health and veterinary experts in the eight laboratory is analyzing the possibility of bird flu virus spread to poultry other than ducks. Virus that attacks at least 350,000 ducks in the last month in West Java, Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta is relatively new in Indonesia namely clade 2.3.2.

Bird flu attack this time was most violent than before. Moreover, cases of large numbers death in ducks just once happens.

So far, the spread of H5N1 virus in Indonesia comes from clade 2.1 (KONTAN Daily, December 8, 2012). “I have the information from friends in several districts in East Java already infected,” said Mujiono, a duck farmer from Banyuwangi, yesterday.

But he admitted until now 3000 ducks still safe, has not contracted the bird flu virus. “Praise is not affected,” he said yesterday. Some areas with bird flu was Blitar, Tulungagung, Jombang, Kediri and Bangkalan Madura.

So far, bird flu has not been attacking chickens. According to the Chairman of the Federation of Indonesian Poultry Don P. Utoyo, commercial farms both large and small are anticipating the bird flu attack.

Director General of Livestock and Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture (Kemtan), Syukur Iwantoro, on December 6, 2012, released a circular letter about the control of avian influenza in ducks. The circular letter addressed to 23 agencies, including the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Forestry, the WHO representative in Indonesia, and several poultry business associations in Indonesia.

Deputy Health Minister, Ali Ghufron Mukti, said until yesterday there were no new reports of bird flu cases in humans. But, Ministry of Health claimed to have set up procedures for handling, including quick response teams, and hospitals for people infected bird flu. “We are also asking the public to avoid direct contact with poultry suspected with bird flu,” wrote Ali through short message to KONTAN, Monday (10/12).

Investigate Ducks Import
Pujiatmoko, Director of Animal Health, said the government was investigating whether the avian influenza virus is spread by migratory birds from abroad or through imports ducks. He affirmed that since 2005, the government banned the import of ducks from a country that has not been free of bird flu such as Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. During this time, the import of ducks come from bird flu-free regions such as France and the UK.

Chairman of Association of Indonesia Local Poultry Businessmen (Himpuli), Ade Zulkarnaen, doubted about the import banned. The evidence, so far Indonesia imported ducks from Thailand and China. “During this import peking duck is from there. Why this can leak?” Ade said.

However Pujiatmoko denied. “We never issued a Request Submission (SPP) ducks imported from these countries,” he said.

Source: Kontan (By Nur Fitri Arifenie, Cindy Silviana Sukma, Sandy Baskoro)

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Government Aware of The Bird Flu Virus

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