Condition of Poultry Market in Tangerang is Concerning

TANGERANG (SINDO) – United States of America Ambassador, Cameron R Hume, said the condition of Gerendeng Poultry Market at Jalan Imam Bonjol in Gerendeng administrative village of Karawaci sub-district is very concerning because it is vulnerable for contact between poultry and human. The Gerendeng Poultry Market is not appropriate for operations because it is located in the middle of residential housing and right next to a hospital. Moreover, poultry slaughtering activities are also done directly in the market. In the future, Cameron hopes the local government will relocate vendors of that market to a modern market as soon as possible. “This market is not fitting to be operated.”

“The government should immediately relocate the vendors to a modern market,” said Cameron after visiting the market yesterday. The visit was to observe the conditions of health facilities and poultry selling facilities. This was related to the USA government’s policy to give an aid of 1.5 million USD to overcome avian influenza in the municipality and district of Tangerang. Head of the Communicable Disease Mitigation and Environmental Health Sub-Office of the Health Office of Tangerang municipality, Liza Puspadewi, said that they have already known the condition of Gerendeng Poultry Market.
“It is one of the markets that will be regulated by the municipal government,” said Liza. Liza added that the municipal government will also regulate a number of places selling live poultry. “Trade of live poultry causes contact between poultry and human,” she continued. Meanwhile, Head of the Agriculture and Livestock Services Office of Tangerang district, Didi Aswadi, said that they need large sums of funding to control avian influenza.
Currently, he admitted, mitigation measures done by his office still faces many challenges. One of the challenges is vaccine stock. “We only have one million doses of vaccine, while in reality we need eleven million doses,” said Didi. (denny irawan)
Source : SINDO