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Indonesian Health Minister Calls for Poultry Ban in Cities

Posted on: Sunday, 19 February 2006, 09:00 CST

Indonesian health minister calls for poultry ban in cities

JAKARTA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- To help stop the spread of bird flu and prevent human-to-human transmissions, the government should ban live poultry in cities, Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said.

"Urban areas must be freed from fowl. Any fowl found in urban areas must be culled immediately," Antaran news agency on Sunday quoted the minister as saying.

She said densely populated urban areas should serve as storage, distribution and market areas while the breeding areas must be located in the suburbs.

He statement came after official reports that bird flu had spread across the densely populated provinces of Central and West Java.

The Indonesian Association of Poultry Veterinarians has reportedly warned the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza has spread to 27 of 33 provinces in the country, blaming the central and local administrations for their "poor coordination" in fighting the virus.

Siti said the chain of the bird flu epidemic in Indonesia could be cut off if all people take active part.

In the meantime, the Jakarta city administration is ready to disburse its emergency funds totaling 700 billion rupiah (76 million U.S. dollars) in compensation for a cull of poultry allegedly infected with the deadly avian influenza (AI) virus.

Indonesian health ministry had recorded a total of 27 positive cases of bird flu from July to Feb. 12 this year in 16 provinces in the country and the cases had led to 19 deaths.

Meanwhile, out of 91 patients treated on suspicion of carrying H5N1 strain of bird flu virus, 28 have died.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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