East Java to prevent bird flu

The agency of animal husbandry of the province of East Java girds itself for another onset of bird flu in the territory after a case of bird flu in Jakarta recently. East Java province is known as one of the broiler and egg production centers in Indonesia.

Head of the agency of animal husbandry of East Java province, Suparwoko Adisumarto, said that they have prepared about three million doses of bird flu vaccine for poultry and 133,000 liter of disinfectants. These vaccines and disinfectants will be distributed to 38 districts in East Java, according to Adisumarto.

Adisumarto added that they would also optimize their LDCC (Local Disease Control Centre) team to prevent bird flu in the 38 districts.

“The LDCC team of 250 people will directly monitor backyard and commercial poultry. They will report their findings to PDSR (Participatory Disease Surveillance and Response) team,” he said.

In 2011, the agency of animal husbandry of East Java province noted that there have been as many as 53 cases of bird flu in the territory with a total of 17,139 birds having been culled.

The OIE (The World Organisation for Animal Health) considers the prevalence of the H5N1 virus in Indonesia as endemic and unlikely to be contained, given the epidemiology that concludes that the source of the outbreaks is largely due to the illegal movement of animals.