# 612
Normally, we don't hear about the outbreaks among poultry in Indonesia anymore. They are simply too common to chronicle. At last report, 30 of 33 provinces in that country are reporting that H5N1 is endemic in poultry.
Every once in awhile, a news article does appear in the English language papers giving us some idea of the magnitude of the problem. This one is from Antara news.
Even by Indonesian standards, this is a major outbreak.
06/20/07 01:05
Tens of thousands of poultry die of AI in E. Kalimantan
Samarinda (ANTARA News) - At least 43,000 poultry in Samarinda city and Kutai Kartanegara distict have been infected with the bird flu (Avian Influenza) virus since last May, a provincial animal husbandry official said.
"Since the first bird flu case was known in 2005, the two regions have been categorized as bird-flu endemic areas but last May there was a flareup in the situation ," the official said.
Speaking after a meeting to coordinate bird flu response and prevention efforts, he said all the infected poultry in the two regions had died or were culled.
In the Kutai Kartanegara distirct in May, 28,200 poultry were infected and most of them in seven of the district`s 12 sub districts were found dead.
In Samarinda city since Mei 573 infected poultry were culled while 15,000 were found dead, he said.
At the coordination meeting it was decided that the East Kalimantan provincial administration would coordinate efforts to be made by all government agencies in the province to respond to bird flu outbreaks immediately to prevent the disease from spreading to other cities or districts outside Samarinda and Kutai Kartanegara.
Although so far the virus had not affected humans in East Kalimantan, the provincial health office had provided six hospitals in the region with equipment to treat bird flu patients.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the East Kalimantan Association of Poultry Breeders, Sumarsongko, asked local animal health authorities to initiate efforts to familarize poulty breeders in the province with symptoms of bird flu and methods to check poultry`s state of health as many of them still lacked the knowledge or did not employ people who had the capability to detect the disease.
He also said since the recent bird flu outbreaks among poultry, many people had become reluctant to consume chicken meat and as a consequence, the market price of poultry had dropped resulting in lower income for poultry breeders.
Therefore, he said, he hoped the provincial administration would not hurry to declare the bird-flu situation an "extraordinary happening" (KLB) us such a measure would cause poultry breeders to suffer even greater losses.
The market price of a live chicken weighing 1.5 kilograms had dropped to Rp4,000 per chicken and that of a chicken weighing 2 kilograms to Rp6.000 since last May, Sumarsongko said. (*)
