Indonesia: A correlation between AI and the rainy season
From January to March 2011, the data from the Directorate of Animal Health of Agriculture Ministry showed a significant increase in Avian Influenza (AI) cases in sector 4 (small-scale poultry farming and poultry backyard farming).
In January 2011, there were 136 cases, in February 2011, 156 cases, and in March 2011, 307 cases.
According to Prof. Charles Rangga Tabbu of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, the rainy season during 2010 until the end of March 2011 and floods in some areas were suspected to have triggered the increasing number of AI cases in poultry in Indonesia. Floods and rains continue to make biosecurity hard to apply strictly.
“In a normal season, the highest occurrence of AI cases was usually from November to March and sometimes until April. If observed further, the peak occurred from January to April mainly due to the heavy rains and floods, aggravated by the poultry raising system in Indonesia where the majority of houses were open and farm locations tended to concentrate in certain areas,” he explained.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Bayu Krisnamurthi, said that AI cases in 2009 to early 2011 were seasonal. “Although AI cases were seasonal, we have to put a special attention to this problem. It is because some provinces such as North Sulawesi and West Kalimantan which are free of AI were attacked by AI recently,” he said.
Source: Arief Fachrudin
