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Karo residents peeved poultry cull was done in the dark
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
July 27, 2006
Hundreds of chickens in Karo regency, North Sumatra, have been slaughtered by animal husbandry officials after three of them tested positive for bird flu.
Starting at 9 p.m. Tuesday, 1,890 birds had been culled by Wednesday afternoon. Angry residents claimed military, police and public order officers had come to their homes after dark, when they could not "rescue" their birds.
A Kabanjahe resident, Sumiati Ginting, 40, said men in uniform had arrived unannounced Tuesday night, pushed open the door to her chicken pen and killed them all. They burned the carcasses.
"I object to their methods. It's like stealing, because I was not informed they were coming."
However, she said she understood the chickens "needed to go" before they got sick. "I support the government's move to carry out culls to prevent further outbreaks of bird flu."
Bird flu has spread rapidly since late 2003 from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since the virus re-emerged in Asia in 2003, outbreaks have been confirmed in more than 48 countries and territories, according to data from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
A cluster of seven people from a single family in Kubu Simbelang village, Karo, died of the virus this year. An eighth family member was buried before samples were collected but the World Health Organization believes she was likely to be part of the family cluster of cases, the largest ever reported.
Last week, the country's mortality rate from bird flu surpassed Vietnam -- bringing the country's total deaths to 43 of 56 verified patients, surpassing Vietnam with 42 of 93, according to figures from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. However, the WHO recognizes only 42 deaths of 54 patients.
The deputy head of the North Sumatra Animal Husbandry Office, Tetty Erlina Lubis, said in her speech during a bird flu workshop in Medan on Wednesday that three chickens at a slaughterhouse in Kabanjahe had tested positive for bird flu.
The birds tested positive at 6 p.m. Tuesday and the cull of all poultry within a one-kilometer radius of the slaughterhouse began three hours later.
Tetty said infected poultry had been found in 14 of the 25 regencies and cities in the province, including Deli Serdang, Medan, Langkat, Serdang Bedagai, Simalungun, North Tapanuli, Samosir, Binjai, Toba Samosir and South Tapanuli.
During the workshop, which was facilitated by Save the Children and attended by hundreds of officials, and representatives of the WHO and non-governmental organizations, a commitment was made to curbing the spread of bird flu in the province.
It included forming bird flu teams in all regencies and cities, improving surveillance and reporting systems and running a public education campaign.
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
July 27, 2006
Hundreds of chickens in Karo regency, North Sumatra, have been slaughtered by animal husbandry officials after three of them tested positive for bird flu.
Starting at 9 p.m. Tuesday, 1,890 birds had been culled by Wednesday afternoon. Angry residents claimed military, police and public order officers had come to their homes after dark, when they could not "rescue" their birds.
A Kabanjahe resident, Sumiati Ginting, 40, said men in uniform had arrived unannounced Tuesday night, pushed open the door to her chicken pen and killed them all. They burned the carcasses.
"I object to their methods. It's like stealing, because I was not informed they were coming."
However, she said she understood the chickens "needed to go" before they got sick. "I support the government's move to carry out culls to prevent further outbreaks of bird flu."
Bird flu has spread rapidly since late 2003 from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since the virus re-emerged in Asia in 2003, outbreaks have been confirmed in more than 48 countries and territories, according to data from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
A cluster of seven people from a single family in Kubu Simbelang village, Karo, died of the virus this year. An eighth family member was buried before samples were collected but the World Health Organization believes she was likely to be part of the family cluster of cases, the largest ever reported.
Last week, the country's mortality rate from bird flu surpassed Vietnam -- bringing the country's total deaths to 43 of 56 verified patients, surpassing Vietnam with 42 of 93, according to figures from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. However, the WHO recognizes only 42 deaths of 54 patients.
The deputy head of the North Sumatra Animal Husbandry Office, Tetty Erlina Lubis, said in her speech during a bird flu workshop in Medan on Wednesday that three chickens at a slaughterhouse in Kabanjahe had tested positive for bird flu.
The birds tested positive at 6 p.m. Tuesday and the cull of all poultry within a one-kilometer radius of the slaughterhouse began three hours later.
Tetty said infected poultry had been found in 14 of the 25 regencies and cities in the province, including Deli Serdang, Medan, Langkat, Serdang Bedagai, Simalungun, North Tapanuli, Samosir, Binjai, Toba Samosir and South Tapanuli.
During the workshop, which was facilitated by Save the Children and attended by hundreds of officials, and representatives of the WHO and non-governmental organizations, a commitment was made to curbing the spread of bird flu in the province.
It included forming bird flu teams in all regencies and cities, improving surveillance and reporting systems and running a public education campaign.
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