Indonesia may cull more birds

Jakarta - Indonesia must cull more birds in areas where the deadly bird flu virus, which has killed at least 38 people in the country is found, say experts.

The world's fourth most populous nation was on track to record the world's highest number of deaths from the H5N1 virus. It trailed Vietnam, which reported 42 deaths, but hadn't suffered any this year.

Trisatya Naipospos, vice chairperson of the National Committee on Bird Flu Control, said the best way to prevent infections in humans was to control the virus at its source: domestic poultry.

She said: "Within six months we have to do more practical culling...there's no other alternative." Naipospos warned that the H5N1 virus was "already all over the place".

Draft law submitted to parly

Naipospos said: "There is no way to cull chicken if you don't have a good law... There has to be an effort to put legislation in place."

She was referring to a draft law that the government had submitted to parliament on epidemics.

If passed, the law would among other things give authorities power to more rapidly and easily cull poultry. They had no legal power to cull chickens if owners didn't let them.

Indonesia had already been criticised for its slow response to fight bird flu, which had been found in the vast majority of its provinces. Few mass culls, which were recommended by the United Nations, had been carried out.

Bird flu' rare in humans'

Steven Bjorge, a medical officer from the World Health Organisation's communicable disease section, said that the culture of keeping backyard birds needed to change.

He said: "Now we have to start living in a different way than our ancestors. There has to be some changes in how we handle birds." He said that no immediate threat of a pandemic among humans was apparent.

Bjorge said: "It is a pandemic in birds, it is not a pandemic in humans... At the moment, it is still a very rare disease as far as humans are concerned", noting that other diseases were much more of a threat to ordinary Indonesians.

Tuberculosis killed about 300 Indonesians a day and malaria claimed 90 lives, while various other diseases claimed about 500 children daily.

More than 120 people had died of bird flu around the world since late 2003, the vast majority of them in Asia.

- AFP