Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The central government is set to extend a ban on backyard birds in the capital to eight other provinces in an attempt to stem the latest bird flu outbreak, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Thursday.
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso told city residents Wednesday their backyard fowls would be confiscated and destroyed if they failed to get rid of the birds by the end of the month.
The move follows the deaths of four people from the virus since the start of the year, taking the number of confirmed human deaths in the country to 61, the highest in the world. The four victims came from Jakarta and Tangerang.
Reuters quoted Siti as saying the ban would be extended to eight other provinces that had reported human infections of the H5N1 virus.
"There must be special zones for poultry away from residential areas," she said, adding the measure would eventually be enforced in all the country's 33 provinces.
Siti said the Home Ministry had also issued a circular urging local authorities in the nine affected provinces to increase their monitoring of poultry traffic.
Chickens are common in most residential areas of Jakarta, and roam freely just a couple of minutes' walk from the capital's central business district. Elsewhere in the country, it is common to see poultry workers handling dead birds, mucus dripping from their beaks, with bare hands.
However, small-scale poultry breeders and bird lovers have railed against the planned measure along with the Bekasi, Pandeglang and Banten administrations.
The head of the National Commission for Bird Flu Control and Pandemic Preparedness, Bayu Krisnamurthi, told The Jakarta Post the Jakarta administration should speed up the creation of detailed guidelines to accompany the enforcement of the ban.
"There will be resistance and confusion among people if officials don't guide them on how to comply with the regulation," Bayu said.
Bayu said the Jakarta administration should prepare places for people to dispose of birds or they could end up being burned or dumped throughout the city and become a hygiene risk.
Jakarta will also receive new supplies of the flu treatment drug oseltamivir, which will be stockpiled at hospitals and district-level health clinics around the city, he said, without specifying the amount.
The central government has committed to pay poultry owners Rp 12,500 (US$1.34) for each infected bird culled by officials.
Sutiyoso, meanwhile, is not offering any compensation to owners.
A proper public information campaign was essential if the city's ban on backyard chickens was to succeed, Bayu said.
The head of the city council's commission B for the economy and finance, Nurmansjah Lubis, said officials' commitment to implementing the regulation would also be vital.
The city council has approved a Rp 4.5 billion (about US$493,000) budget this year for the municipal Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Agency to monitor poultry.
--Nana Rukmana in Cirebon, Rusman in Bekasi and Multa Fidrus in Tangerang also contributed to the story.
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