T

he West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) provincial administration has ordered its Husbandry and Animal Health Agency to ban poultry entering from other provinces following outbreaks of the avian influenza virus, better known as bird flu.

The prohibition is part of efforts to ensure that the bird flu virus does not enter NTB, which has so far been declared free of the virus.

The agency has called on sub agencies in 10 regencies across the province to take the necessary precautions to prevent the virus spreading to the region.

“We aim to tighten up poultry movement. Therefore, we have decided to prohibit poultry, including chickens and ducks, from outside NTB,” said the agency head, Herry Erpan Rayes, in Mataram on Tuesday.

“We worry that poultry [from outside] might have been infected by the bird flu virus and spread the disease to our province,” Herry said.

Officials of the agency will double the guard at the inter-province border, such as on the Lembar - Pandang Bai route, which connects West Lombok and Bali.

More officials will be also be deployed in Bima, which links NTB with East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) through Sape Port. “The thing that worries us most is the presence of fighting cocks illegally smuggled into NTB,” Herry continued.

The last sudden case of chicken deaths in NTB took place in November 2012 in East Lombok regency, but after a series of tests, the deaths were not linked to the bird flu virus.

“It turned out that the 300 chickens died due to the change of weather,” he said, calling on residents to immediately report any sudden poultry deaths in their areas to the authorities.

According to the NTB Husbandry and Animal Health Agency, the last bird flu outbreak in the province occurred in mid 2011 when hundreds of chickens died in Central Lombok and East Lombok. In the same year, bird flu also claimed a human life.

Most regions across the country have now begun taking measures in anticipation of the spread of a new strain of the avian flu virus, identified as H5N1 clade 2.3.2, which has killed thousands of ducks over the past few months.

The Cirebon regency administration in West Java, for instance, has set up a special team for bird flu prevention comprising 80 members, 17 of whom are veterinarians, and they have been deployed to promote the vaccination program in all villages with duck and chicken farms in the regency.