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Bird flu outbreak in Gorontalo, thousands of chickens culled
The cull: Officials from the Gorontalo administrationâs rapid response unit for animal-borne infectious diseases kill chickens that tested positive for bird flu in Dumati village, Telaga Biru district, Gorontalo regency, on Saturday evening
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The cull: Officials from the Gorontalo administrationâs rapid response unit for animal-borne infectious diseases kill chickens that tested positive for bird flu in Dumati village, Telaga Biru district, Gorontalo regency, on Saturday evening. (JP/Syamsul Huda M. Suhari) (JP/Syamsul Huda M. Suhari)
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span class="inline inline-center">The cull: Officials from the Gorontalo administration's rapid response unit for animal-borne infectious diseases kill chickens that tested positive for bird flu in Dumati village, Telaga Biru district, Gorontalo regency, on Saturday evening. (JP/Syamsul Huda M. Suhari)
Thousands of chickens belonging to residents in Gorontalo were culled on Saturday evening after a suspected outbreak of bird flu left dozens of other chickens dead in several areas of the province.
The Gorontalo administration's quick response unit (URC) for infectious animal diseases said it first recorded the suspected bird flu case in North Heledulaa, Gorontalo City, on Sept.25, in which 30 chickens owned by a local resident died suddenly for no obvious reason. Several similar cases occurred in several areas across Gorontalo City one after the other and rapidly spread to two nearby regions: Gorontalo regency and Bone Bolango.
'A number of suspected bird flu cases had previously occurred; however, the local residents were somewhat reluctant to report the cases to animal health authorities,' Fenny Rumporok of the URC team told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Since it detected the first suspected bird flu cases at the end of September, Fenny said the URC team had slaughtered 7,696 broiler chickens, free-range chickens and quails. Of the total, approximately 2,440 chickens were killed in Gorontalo City, followed by Bone Bolango (1,556) and Gorontalo regency (3,700).
According to official data, there has been no bird flu infection in humans reported so far. The suspected bird flu cases have affected only three out of six regions in Gorontalo province. Three areas declared free of suspected bird-flu cases are Boalemo regency, Pohuwato and North Gorontalo.
The Gorontalo administration has also not yet declared the deaths of chickens suspected of contracting bird flu in the province as an extraordinary situation.
Bird flu in Gorontalo was first detected in Gandaria village in Tolangohula district and in Hutuo village in Limboto district, Gorontalo regency, in March 2011. At that time, almost 2,000 chickens tested positive for bird flu and were culled.
The URC team said the latest suspected bird flu case was reported in Buhu village, Gorontalo regency on Sunday.
Muhammad Ismail, 43, a poultry breeder in Dumati village, Telaga Biru district, Gorontalo regency, said he hoped the government could pay proper compensation.
He said he suffered tens of millions of rupiah in losses after 639 chickens declared bird flu-positive from his farm were killed on Saturday evening. (tah/ebf)
