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JAKARTA, Fri. --- Indonesia pledged today a year-long fight against bird flu which will include military involvement in house-to-house checks and culls across the vast archipelago nation. Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said the Government, which has been criticized for acting slowly against the deadly virus, would “intensively” fight it into 2006, as a cull of nearly 500 birds took place in the capital. |
“We will be continuously performing this until all areas are safe. The President has said that until 2006, for one year, we will intensively eradicate bird flu virus”, he said. Indonesia has had more than one dozen suspected human bird flu deaths, but only seven have been confirmed by the World Health Organization. Four other people have been confirmed as contracting the virus but are still alive. |
Today, in one of the first publicized culling in the country, almost 500 infected chickens and pet birds were destroyed in a bonfire. Apriyantono urged civilians to be “willing to allow their sick or non-sick chickens and birds” to be culled by officials and said they would be compensated for culled birds at market prices. The Government yesterday revealed that hundreds of chickens in three districts in Acheh had been infected with the virus. --- AFP. |
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