# 312
In a truly strange development building on the story from yesterday reported here, about the scientist who tested 500 stray cats in Indonesia and found 20% of them infected with the H5N1 virus, the Strait Times Online is reporting the following:
Bird Flu update: Alarm as infected stray cats roam the streets
16 Jan 2007
Amy Chew reporting from Jakarta
AT least 100 stray cats roaming the streets of major cities in Indonesia are infected with the deadly H5N1 virus, which causes avian influenza.
The irony is that when tests were conducted on 500 stray cats in Jakarta, Surabaya, Semarang, Bandung, Tangerang and Lampung, and the 100 were found to be infected, they were all released back onto the streets.
Dr C.A. Nidom, head of Avian Influenza Laboratorium at the University of Airlangga, said the tests were conducted from September to December last year.
When asked why the infected felines were released into the streets, he said: "I had no right to destroy them."
He said the stray cats were collected from markets selling chicken and in the vicinity of hospitals designated to treat bird flu patients.
As an animal lover, I do sympathize. Destroying infected animals is never an easy decision.
But I find this incredible.
