Budget Reallocate, Subsidy for Poultry Restructure

Jakarta, Kompas – The Ministry of Agriculture is considering on revising their budget for avian influenza vaccination to be used for poultry restructure instead. But, it will take time and a long process to revise all the budget details. Thus was a statement from the Minister of Agriculture, Anton Apriyantono, on Tuesday (13/1) in Jakarta, in respond to a question about the Ministry’s policy regarding further AI vaccination programs in sector 4 which was deemed to be ineffective. According to Anton, the challenge in reallocating vaccination subsidy to poultry restructure program is the long time and process it takes to revise it. “We need to select programs that could really be conducted within the available time slots,” he said.

Chairman of the Indonesian Native Chicken Farmer Association (Himpuli), Ade M Zulkarnain, said that now farmers are waiting for new policies from the Ministry of Agriculture in response to the ineffectiveness of AI vaccination. “Even local livestock service offices are waiting for new policies after vaccination was stated to be ineffective,” he said. A strong respond from the Ministry of Agriculture is highly needed, said Zulkarnain, because all vaccination programs in sector 4 poultry are subsidized by the government and it costs a lot.

More than 100 billion rupiahs
The estimated population of sector 4 chickens from the Ministry of Agriculture is 300 million birds. Based on that data, the vaccination subsidy budget is clearly over tens of billions of rupiahs.
Himpuli has calculated that based on the population of sector 4 chickens, the government would have vaccinated approximately 300 million birds. If the price per one dose vaccine is 200 rupiahs, one time vaccination will require a subsidy of 60 billion rupiahs – if vaccination is conducted twice, it will cost over 100 billion rupiahs. “That is because the subsidy is 100 percent,” he said. Also to be calculated is the vaccinator’s fee and operation cost for each livestock service office. Therefore, reallocation of the money is well accepted by farmers. Especially restructure of sector 4 farms, he said, where native chickens must be caged with a certain standard. “For example the cages should be far from houses and aren’t made like wooden crates, but in accordance to the standards of a modern chicken cage. Village poultry farming should also be conducted by grouping farmers, so it would be easier to implement good farming practices,” said Zulkarnain.

House all birds
Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health from the Ministry of Health, Tjandar Yoga Aditama, advises people to cage their poultry to prevent AI transmission to human. Regarding the non-specific clinical signs of AI infected poultry, he will coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture. “The official decision on the alteration of AI clinical signs in poultry is the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture. We are waiting for their official statement,” he said.
But, the Ministry of Health will not change their protocol for AI management in human even though the Ministry of Agriculture has officially confirmed that AI infected chickens could carry the virus without showing specific clinical signs.
The Ministry of Health defines a patient as AI suspect if they have clinical signs of AI infection in human and had contact with poultry. “It could be dead or live birds. A contact history with poultry is one of the indicators of an AI patient,” he said.
In handling with AI, we need to know whether there are poultry in the patient’s neighborhood or if the patient has had contact with poultry. There are two ways of approaching AI. First, teams from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture will go to a certain location if there was information of a person suspected for AI infection. Second, if there is information of high mortality in poultry or AI positive birds.
The source of AI infection in human is poultry, particularly chicken. Even though there are different strains, the virus is still H5N1 and it could be transmitted. (MAS/EVY)
Source : Kompas