Indonesia moving on AI: poultry to be caged

[AlaskaDenise]

http://www.worldpoultry.net/ts_wo/wo..._news_content/

Indonesia has begun what its government acknowledges will be a monumental and difficult task in the fight against bird flu ? demanding that poultry in urban areas are caged.


<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> ImageUtils.showImage("/ts_wo/resources/attachments/im/true/preview/true/id/10114/chickens in cage-3-news0706 and 1006.jpg", "IMAGE/PJPEG", 146, 146); </SCRIPT> Indonesia has a bird flu death toll of 55 people ? the highest count in the world.

Indonesia's Health Ministry head Siti Fadilah Supari said that caging birds was ?a measure we have to take to be free from bird flu. It's urgent and must be done as soon as possible.?

No timeframe was given, however, and the plan will almost certainly face resistance from the owners of the nations? hundreds of millions of backyard birds.

Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry head Anton Apriyantono said the measure would be implemented systematically.

"We will start by demanding that poultry be kept in cages in urban areas," he said. "If chickens are found walking free, then officials have the right to seize them."

According to the latest statistics from the World Health Organisation , bird flu has killed more than 150 people worldwide since 2003, with more than a third of these deaths occurring in Indonesia.

While most of the human deaths from the virus can be traced back to contact with infected birds, the WHO still fears the virus could mutate into a form that easily spreads among humans, sparking a pandemic.

Indonesia has attracted international criticism for not doing enough to stamp out the virus in its vast poultry stocks, and was told in August it would have to boost its own spending before receiving more foreign help.

David Nabarro , the United Nations' coordinator for avian and pandemic influenza, said in the weeks that followed that significant progress had been made, with the government working hard to warn citizens of the dangers posed by the virus.

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[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Indonesia moving on AI: poultry to be caged

Doubt over govt plan to contain bird flu

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The effectiveness of the government's plan to cage fowls in residential areas as a move to curb the spread of the deadly avian influenza virus has been met with skepticism.

The Indonesia Consumers Foundation chief Husna Zahier said Sunday that the plan would be ineffective without a careful study of poultry and the relationship with their owners.

"If people don't keep their habitat and poultry cages clean, then the policy would be pretty much useless," she told The Jakarta Post.

Further details, such as the type of poultry, quantity, purpose for keeping fowls and place where people keep them make a difference in how effective the regulation will be, she asserted.

"Keeping birds or poultry as a hobby or for eggs or meat is not the same," she said.

The National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Preparedness (FBPI), the body responsible for controlling the H5N1 virus spread, should pay special attention to the culture of the affected areas, she said.

"People handle poultry differently according to their customs and habits. This should be studied well in order to ensure effective monitoring," she said.

The central government announced last week that fowls would be separated from people in urban residential areas. The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization will assist the government in setting the time frame for the program.

Indonesia has the highest number of bird flu deaths in the world, with 55 fatalities out of 75 cases.

Jakarta, West Java and Central Java have seen the most people infected with the H5N1 virus.

Sociologist Ida Ruwaidi told the Post on Sunday that the quantity of birds, chickens and ducks that people kept in residential areas also matters tremendously.

"The large quantity of the poultry stock means that the whole community in the area, not just the local administration or fowl owners, should also take responsibility," she said.

Ida added that people's mind-set, both individual and collectively, needed to be changed to allow effective implementation.

"Without victims, many people will see the policy as just another regulation. Once someone in their area is infected by the H5N1 virus, then they would readily follow the procedure," the sociologist said.

Ida said that this regulation should be supported by a massive bio-security awareness campaign to change people's mind-set.

"The mass media, especially the broadcast media, is the most effective for raising awareness. Educational institutions and places of worship should also encourage the community to take charge in monitoring," Ida said.

She said that this would need painstaking and concerted efforts before it became second nature. Everybody in affected subdistricts, she said, should be authorized to enforce social control.

"Individuals in affected areas could be given the authority to monitor whether their neighbors have caged their fowls or let them run around in their yard," she said.

She added that besides culling, the government needed to add more facilities and monitor the caging implementation on a regular basis.

"Funding used to be the problem. Now it's up to people how much they want the eradication of avian influenza to be successful," Ida said.

Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie says the government has pledged to allocate Rp 100 billion in order to assist public health facilities in monitoring and treating patients with symptoms of avian influenza. (03)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20061026.H06&irec=5

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Indonesia moving on AI: poultry to be caged

How do the Indonesian proposals compare with those of Hong Kong and Beijing? I believe HK and Beijing had some success with their strategies.

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