Avian Influenza : Improve the Farm Environment Quality

SUKABUMI, KOMPAS – If farmers want to stop the use of avian influenza vaccines, the environmental quality of native chicken farms must be improved. The fact is disease will easily strike if vaccination is stop. This was a statement from Head of the Livestock Service Office of Sukabumi District, Asep Sugiyanto, on Monday (5/1), in response to the request to stop AI vaccination from hundreds of members of the Indonesian Native Chicken Farmer Association (Himpuli), including those that are in Sukabumi, West Java.

Hundreds of Himpuli members had stopped giving AI vaccination to their birds because a study done by Non Government Organization (NGO) CIVAS discovered that vaccination in native chickens could not significantly increase their immunity (Kompas, 5/1). “The consequence of stopping vaccination is that biosecurity must be improved for poultry restructure of sector four farms,” said Asep. He said that when vaccination is stopped, various poultry diseases still threat to infect, therefore there’s no choice but to increase the quality of the farm’s environment. “Farmers should control feed and the farm environment. If not, while vaccination is stopped, the birds will be very prone to disease,” said Asep.
He stated that in 2006 vaccination was carried out using H5N1, while in 2007 it was changed using H5N2. “H5N2 vaccines were used because H5N1 turned out to be to strong, causing many chickens to die because of the vaccine,” said Asep. But in 2008, H5N1 was once again used because commercial farms had used it. 

Not recommended
Asep said that for 2009, AI vaccination is not recommended for free-ranged birds. “Currently we don’t have a vaccination plan for 2009, but it’s true that vaccination is not recommended for free-ranged native chickens because of the ineffectiveness. They have very high movement making it hard to control,” he said.
Director of NGO CIVAS, Albertus Mulyono, said that basically CIVAS recommends the government to review the use of vaccination, since study results show it to be ineffective. “But, if the government still wants to vaccinate, field virus mapping must be finished quickly so that the right vaccines could be used at the right places,” he said. (AHA)
Source: Kompas [edited]