Indonesia bird flu official moved

[hawkeye]

Indonesia bird flu official moved

An Indonesian official in charge of animal health has been transferred from his post, as the country continues to grapple with an outbreak of bird flu.

An agriculture ministry spokesman said Sjamsul Bahri's departure was part of a routine rotation of personnel.

But because Mr Bahri was closely involved in handling the outbreak, there is speculation that the worsening crisis contributed to his transfer.

Indonesia has been accused of not doing enough to stop bird flu spreading.

The virulent H5N1 strain is endemic in poultry in most of the country, and has also caused 41 human fatalities.

Indonesia could soon overtake Vietnam as the country with the highest bird flu death toll. Vietnam has recorded 42 deaths, although nobody has died this year after an aggressive culling and vaccination policy.

Culling policy

Sjamsul Bahri had been director of animal health at the agriculture ministry since September 2005.

He told the BBC that he did not know whether his transfer had anything to do with bird flu.

A report in the Koran Tempo newspaper quoted Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono as saying Mr Bahri was fired because of his poor performance in fighting the outbreak, but a spokesman for the ministry told the BBC that the transfer was routine practice.

Indonesia has been criticised for its reluctance to cull fowl in infected areas - a measure that experts say is the best way to stem the spread of the disease.

But the government says it does not have enough money to compensate farmers, and has asked for $900m (?495m) over the next three years to tackle the virus.

Indonesia's problems were highlighted in May when the country recorded a large cluster of deaths which the WHO believes were the result of human-to-human transmission.

Experts say this particular incident did not signal a major change in the spread of the disease. But there is a fear that the bird flu virus could mutate to a form which could be easily passed from human to human, triggering a pandemic and potentially putting millions of lives at risk.

Worldwide, more than 130 people have died of bird flu since late 2003. Most of the deaths have been in East Asia, but cases of the virus have also been found in Europe, Africa and South and Central Asia.

 

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BIRD FLU: INDONESIAN VETS URGE UNIFORM APPROACH

BIRD FLU: INDONESIAN VETS URGE UNIFORM APPROACH

BIRD FLU: INDONESIAN VETS URGE UNIFORM APPROACH

Jakarta, 12 July (AKI/Jakarta Post) - National veterinarians believe a failure to implement a standardised approach to handling rampant bird flu infection in Indonesian poultry is allowing H5N1 to spread, and fault the government for sluggish handling of the problem. The Indonesian Veterinarians Association (PDHI) said the government erred by allowing regional administrations and their officials to take different approaches to dealing with infected fowl.

"Such a variety of approaches has proven to be ineffective because it allowed the virus to reemerge in regions that already culled their sick chickens," PDHI chairman Budi Tri Akoso told reporters ahead of the 15th national congress of veterinarians, held from Tuesday to Thursday in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta

H5N1 has killed 41 people -- 30 of them in 2006 -- and infected tens of millions of chickens throughout the country and experts predict Indonesia will soon overtake Vietnam as the country with the highest number of human fatalities from the disease.

Budi highlighted the fact that regional administrations used different approaches in handling outbreaks, with some favoring culls and others opting for mass vaccinations.

"The approaches were carried out without carrying out thorough research as the basis to determine what solutions should be taken," he said.

He added that the lack of research to determine the most appropriate approach often rendered either measure ineffective, especially if it was not conducted according to international standards set by the World Organization for Animal Health.

"They don't apply a standard culling and vaccination process. How could we be sure then that these measures are successful?" he asked.

The PHDI has urged the government to quickly utilise more than 10,000 veterinarians nationwide to eradicate H5N1 infection in poultry in the nation's 33 provinces before it evolved into a form allowing human-to-human transmission.

"We regret that the handling of bird flu is too slow. We demand the government focus on eliminating the disease from its sources - sick poultry - to avert more human and material losses, as well as to the animals," he said, adding the government had yet to enlist his organisation in fighting bird flu.

A top agriculture ministry official handling avian influenza denied the PHDI's claims that his office had drawn up standard procedures to deal with bird flu beginning in 2003.

"We had them years ago, but they have only been printed in the last couple of months," the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Jakarta Post.

He said the recently published manuals contained standard procedures on surveillance, vaccination, culls and the restocking of the poultry industry.

"It's already a comprehensive manual," he said.

However, he admitted some regional administrations had disregarded the standard procedures because their leaders tended to take short-term approaches to the problem.

"Some of regional leaders are more attracted to non-technical approaches," he added.

The official also claimed that the government had so far succeeded in containing the spread of the virus, which he argued was shown by a lower incidence of poultry infection and a gradual increase in the consumption of chicken.