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Ministry, FAO warn farmers of bird flu
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Poultry farmer Bambang Sutisno Setiawan in Semarang regency, Central Java, has applied biosecurity in his farm since 2015, with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as his adviser. (JP/Suherdjoko)
T
he Agriculture Ministry and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned Indonesian farmers of threats from avian influenza, following the detection of the H9N2 low pathogenic avian influenza virus, which causes a drop in egg production of up to 70 percent on affected farms.
FAO's Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Indonesia and the ministry said in a statement made available Friday that they had responded to control the virus, which included "training of local veterinary service officers, on-farm technical support and raising poultry farmers’ awareness of best farming practices".
On the annual Indolivestock Exposition at the Jakarta Convention Center, FAO ECTAD and the ministry campaigned on prevention of poultry diseases through effective farm biosecurity, flock vaccination and on-farm management.
“We faced challenges in tackling the H9N2 virus, which causes egg drop syndrome. In the past, we were dealing only with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1, and we were able to produce good vaccines for that virus. However, for H9N2, we are still facing difficulties to produce a good vaccine. In reality, the virus is badly damaging farmers’ incomes, because H9N2 decreases egg production,“ said the animal health director at the Agriculture Ministry, Fadjar Sumping, at the opening of the seminar.
Fajar explained that besides H9N2, the ministry also recently received many reports of deaths on broiler chicken farms, “We are still investigating those cases, whether they were caused by a sole infection, or involve multiple infections, combined with other problems like bad poultry feed management, lack of vaccination, or low biosecurity," he said. (evi)
