Sudden Die-Off of 20.000 Chickens in West Kalimantan

“For the time being we suspect that avian influenza viruses were introduced into West Kalimantan through chickens from outside the island. There are many local harbors in Pontianak and we just can’t oversee all of them,” said Manaf, on Sunday (6/2).
To contain the virus in Mempawah, the Livestock and Animal Health Service Office of West Kalimantan strengthened supervision and applied biosecurity in two locations. In the west, monitoring is conducted on all poultry and egg transport going through Sedau in Singkawang city, while in the east it is applied in Batu Layang in Pontianak city.
“We spray all trucks transporting poultry and eggs with disinfectant,” said Manaf. Muhari Yanuar (35), a poultry farmer, said he has lost 5,000 chickens from the incident.
“Despite the poultryhouses being in different locations, in Sungai Pinyuh, Mempawah, and Sungai Duri, chickens were found dead in almost every house,” said Muhari.
Because of the disease, Muhari has suffered a loss of 120 million rupiahs. “Some of the chickens that died were ready for slaughter,” he said.
Chairman of the West Kalimantan Poultry Agribusiness Association, Bambang Mulyantono, said avian influenza is a great issue for them because the approach used by the government is avian influenza-free farming.
“We have recommended several times to use a different approach. Avian influenza is hard to eradicate, therefore we need new approaches, how to grow birds in an environment were there is avian influenza,” he said. (aha)

Source : Kompas