Bird flu busters: Denpasar health officilas disinfectant rows of bamboo cages housing roosters Wednesday, in an effort to prevent the spread of the H5NI avian influenza virus. The spray drive was conducted as Satria Market, the city's largest bird and pet market (JP/Zul Trio Anggono)

The persistence of bird flu on the island may have much to do with how Balinese conduct their traditional rituals, a survey has revealed.

I Gusti Ngurah Badiwangsa Temaja, head of the Klungkung Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Marine Agency, revealed the survey findings to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Balinese Hindu religious rituals require a large number of sacrificial animals for offerings, mainly chickens and ducks. The community prepares the offerings collectively, meaning the sacrificial animals are often slaughtered at the same time and placed by people who wear no protective gear. After the slaughter, the carcasses of the animals are cleansed in rivers or gutters, which are also used by residents to bath in or as a source of drinking water. All these practices increase the possibility for the spread of the H5N1 virus, the study concluded.

It also said that 93 percent of Klungkung residents owned fowl, mostly chickens, ducks and geese. Nearly all of them raised the birds in their own backyards.

The revealing part of the survey showed that nearly 44 percent of these fowl ranchers had experienced their birds die suddenly during a traditional ritual, while 28 percent had experienced their birds die after a traditional ritual.

Badiwangsa said the results signaled the proliferating effect that Balinese Hindu rituals had for bird flu, because the dead fowl did not belong to the ranchers. Most Balinese prefer to buy fowl to use in rituals, rather than slaughter their own birds for the events.

"So indirectly, traditional and religious rituals contribute to the spread of bird flu in Bali," said Badiwangsa, who is also head of the Bali Veterinarians Association.

The survey was conducted in 2007 and canvassed 641 respondents, ranging from household heads to village chiefs, from 18 H5N1-infected villages and 25 uninfected villages.

The survey pointed out the following as factors for the spread of bird flu: rampant discarding of carcasses in running water and trash bins; unsanitary village markets and ranches; and the herding of ducklings on pre-harvested farmland.

The survey also noted the practice of the cleaning of hundreds of fowl in rivers by Balinese preparing for a massive feast before traditional rituals as another factor for the spread.

Fowl have a significant value in Balinese traditional and religious ritual. From a Balinese person's birth to their death, the rites of passage through their life involve a type of fowl-inclusive offering.

As of January, there have been two confirmed human deaths from bird flu, one of which was that of Ni Luh Putu Sri Widiantari, 29, from Negara district in Jembrana, who died in August 2007.

Since October 2003, the Bali Animal Husbandry Agency has shut down on all fowl imports to the island, and the administration has yet to give any signal as to when it might reopen traffic.

"This ban on fowl imports significantly improves our control over the bird flu virus, because we believe the virus did not come from here," said Ida Bagus Ketut Alit, head of the animal husbandry agency.

Alit urged ranchers and the general public to stop raising fowl in their backyards, adding that current government efforts to curb bird flu were not enough, as many Balinese tended to believe in the supernatural rather than the physical.

This seems to be true of Wayan Werti, a 32-year-old duck rancher from Klungkung.

"I've been taking care of thousands of animals since I was a little girl. I believe in God, so no strange diseases will get me. Even if I catch a disease, that's just from a jealous person who hates what I do and made me catch that disease," she said.

I Gusti Ngurah Mahardika, a researcher at Udayana University's Animal Biomedical and Molecular Laboratory, said another factor was the habit of not immediately slaughtering a chicken after buying it, and rather bringing it home alive, thus allowing it to infect other fowl at home.

The avian flu virus can survive in fowl feces for between seven and 10 days, or persist in the feather, eggs or guts

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