# 329
This from the Jakarta Post.com.
RI begins campaign to clear capital of fowl as bird flu cases spike
JAKARTA (AP): Residents handed over hundreds of chickens and other fowl for slaughter Friday as authorities in Indonesia's capital scrambled to stop the spread of bird flu after a spike in human deaths.
Just meters away, however, it was easy to find people with no intention of giving up their birds, showing the difficulties ahead for Indonesia - the country worst hit by bird flu - as it prepares to enforce a ban on fowl in residential areas.
"My chickens are healthy and strong," said Jumadi Akhir, who keeps two fighting cocks and several other ornamental chickens.
"I treat them as good as I do my own children. I wash them morning night and day."
The sprawling country has come under fire for failing to make adequate efforts to fight H5N1 and has largely failed to follow through on earlier promises to stamp out the virus through massculls, so it remains to be seen whether the latest campaign will be a success.
The latest campaign will require the commitment of the government's underpaid and corrupt officials, in addition to support from bird owners.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told residents Friday that lives are at stake.
"People infected by bird flu only have a small chance of survival," she said. "With no medicine to fight the virus and the pattern of the disease still unclear, we have to cut the chain of transmission, which means killing fowl."
According to this article, there are roughly 350 million backyard chickens in Indonesia, many of which are in or near the capitol of Jakarta. Owners have been given until February 1st to either kill, consume, or sell their birds in 9 provinces. After the 1st, a zero-tolerance policy will be initiated, according to the Governor of Jakarta.
Once again, there is some confusion over whether bird owners will be compensated for their poultry. This article indicates that they will, at a rate of about 1 US dollar per bird, but other articles indicate that only sick birds will qualify.
The mandatory culling of tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of fowl over the next few weeks is not without some risk. Presumably some percentage of these birds are infected, and if the culling is done without proper protective gear (and in most pictures I've seen, none is used), there is a real opportunity for further human infection.
If this mandate is successful, and wholesale culling by private individuals occurs, we will have to watch carefully next month to see if this policy helps, or hurts the situation.
