Bird Flu Attacks Pagaralam (South Sumatra)

PAGARALAM (SINDO) – The spread of H5N1 virus (bird flu) is getting wider in Pagaralam city, South Sumatra. Before, 402 chickens were dead, then it added to 420 chickens and now the figures have reached 491 chickens. But before, traffic of chickens or poultry entering Pagaralam city has already strictly monitored by the Animal Health Posts for sterilization by spraying with disinfectants. But it turns out that Pagaralam still could be infected by bird flu. The municipal government of Pagaralam is now on caution in anticipation of bird flu outbreaks.

The municipal government of Pagaralam through its Livestock Services Office admits of having difficulties in sending samples to the Disease Investigation Center Region III Bandar Lampung, because they do not have the transportation media or containers for those samples. Head of the Crop Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries Services Office of Pagaralam city, Syafrin Tiaif, said that until now they have not sent any sample of AI infected chicken or poultry to the DIC Region III Lampung because they do not have supplies of the media or equipment to send the samples. Besides that, budget for sending and testing samples until now has not been allocated.
“It is true that cost for testing is from the department (Livestock), but cost for sending the samples is still unavailable from the budget. But, usually officers from the Livestock Services Office directly bring the samples themselves,” he said yesterday.
Besides that, he said, bird flu cases in Pagaralam this year is far lower than in 2007, which reached thousands of cases. But, his office will continue to apply anticipation measures by spraying disinfectants to the 11 administrative villages and another 35 administrative villages located in five sub-districts that are at risk to the virus.
To know the real status of the chickens or poultry, whether they were infected by bird flu or not, testing was done by rapid test. But, to acquire clearer results, samples still need to be submitted to the DIC laboratory.  “Based on rapid test results, positive bird flu cases were in Bangun Rejo administrative village, while other administrative villages were not yet,” he said. He added that for areas positively infected by bird flu, chickens or poultry in a 1 km radius will be culled by breaking their necks, burned and then buried. Regarding indemnity, they will address it to the Livestock department. He said that another location infected with bird flu is Nendagung administrative village in South Pagaralam sub-district. “The most cases were in Kance Diwe administrative village where 351 chickens died,” he said.
Meanwhile, Refi Jonsi, 30 years old, citizen of Tanjung Are sub-village in Kuriban Babas administrative village felt worried of the bird flu virus spread. It was because his chickens or poultry suddenly died overnight. He was afraid that the virus could also infect humans.  “We hope the government is serious in overcoming this bird flu case, if necessary they should block chickens or poultry entering Pagaralam,” he said. He added that citizens are reluctant to report if any of their chickens died because their animals would be culled without given any compensation.

Prabumuli and Muara Enim are also Infected
Bird flu virus is also starting to infect Prabumulih city. Many chickens owned by citizens of RT 1 RW 3 in Gunung Ibul administrative village of East Prabumulih sub-district suddenly died in this last week. A number of poultry houses owned by citizens are now empty, because within a week, one by one of their chickens had suddenly died.
The dead chickens were then immediately buried by citizens. “Of course we were worried, we no longer thought about profit or loss, the important thing was to bury the dead chickens immediately, because we were scared it could be bird flu,” said Haryono, a citizen.
According to Haryono, the die off started 5 days ago. Chickens owned by citizens just started to suddenly die without clear reason. Medi, 30 years old, another citizen confirmed death of the chickens in that neighborhood happened suddenly. He was worried that the disease causing death in chickens could be transmitted to humans. “If totaled, within this one week, about 50 chickens have suddenly died,” he said. He hoped the government would conduct investigation and survey regarding this incident, to prevent spread of the virus to other areas. Separately, Head of the Agriculture, Livestock, and Forestry Services Office of Prabumuli city, Apriadi, said that his office will send a team to investigate it.
Meanwhile, in Muara Enim, the district government has prepared 300,000 doses of vaccines in anticipation of bird flu outbreaks. The Livestock and Fisheries Services Office of Muara Enim district said they were ready if any bird flu case was found in their area.  Head of the Livestock and Fisheries Services Office, Abdul Nadjib, said they will continue their effort in preventing spread of the H5N1 virus. “For 2008, this year, we have prepared thousands of bird flu vaccines,” he said.
He said that the Livestock Services Office still will ready bird flu posts, which will receive reports from the public. “Despite personnel we have prepared to prevent bird flu in each village,” he said. (sutami ismail/ andhiko tungga alam / yayan darwansah)
Source : SINDO