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City to start intensive anti-birdflu program
The Jakarta administration and the national bird flu committee plan to intensify the bird flu prevention and control program in the capital, which will include strict monitoring of the poultry industry
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The Jakarta administration and the national bird flu committee plan to intensify the bird flu prevention and control program in the capital, which will include strict monitoring of the poultry industry.
"The program has 10 items on its agenda, including the restructuring of the poultry business, regular cleaning of the poultry section at markets, minimizing transportation of poultry and enacting stricter regulations on the live chicken trade," Adnan Ahmad, head of veterinary health at the Jakarta Agriculture, Husbandry and Maritime Agency, said Monday.
He was speaking to reporters after a coordination meeting between the city administration and the National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (Komnas FPBI).
The meeting was also attended by officials from the husbandry division at the Agriculture Ministry and from health agencies in Greater Jakarta.
Adnan said a 2007 city bylaw on poultry would regulate the live poultry trade and reduce the number of poultry slaughterhouses in the city starting in 2010.
In the future, poultry in the city will be kept and killed at one appointed slaughterhouse in each of the city's five municipalities, Adnan said.
Currently there are 259 poultry shelters and around 1,000 slaughterhouses processing approximately 400,000 chickens each day for consumption by Jakarta residents.
He said it was necessary to localize poultry and separate them from residents in order to curtail the spread of bird flu, which has claimed 105 lives throughout the archipelago in the past four years.
Komnas FPBI chairman Bayu Krisna Murthi said the program is focused on Greater Jakarta because that is where 70 percent of the country's bird flu deaths have occurred.
"More than half of the country's bird flu cases have happened in Jakarta and Tangerang," he said.
Bayu said research indicated the possibility of three new groups of bird flu virus strains, in addition to the already existing three groups, in the area.
"But further investigation has yet to prove their definite spread," said Bayu.
The program also aims to clear residences of free-roaming poultry, train doctors and nurses at local health clinics and private hospitals to deal with bird flu cases, hold public information campaigns, make preparations for a possible pandemic and continue the on-going research into the virus and vaccines.
The committee calculates that since 2004, bird flu has caused financial losses of around Rp 4.1 trillion (US$446 million).
This calculation is based on the value of exterminated chickens, decreasing demand and consumption of poultry commodities, additional costs suffered by the government and farmers to handle the disease and also losses suffered by other sectors, especially tourism. (dre)
