Uncontrolled Backyard Chicken farms in Indonesia could cause an
unprecedented outbreak of bird flu H5N1. Without proper regulation
and authority a backyard chicken farm could be a hidden timebomb for
bird flu.
www.Birdflubeacon.com has an excellent article here which discusses
the implications of bird flu to humans
http://www.birdflubeacon.com/BirdFluSymptomsTreatment.htm
Here is the latest news item from Reuters: Bird flu-hit Indonesia to ban city backyard poultry 20 Oct 2006 11:26:28 GMT Source: Reuters
By Yoga Rusmana
JAKARTA, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Indonesia, which has the world’s highest
number of bird flu deaths, intends to bar city residents from keeping
chickens and other poultry in their backyards, ministers said on
Friday.
Indonesia has become a frontline in the battle against the virus that
has killed 55 people in the country, where millions of chickens roam
freely in urban residential areas.
Despite the rising human death toll, the government has resisted mass
culling of birds, citing the expense and impracticality in the
developing country of 220 million people, where the bird flu threat is
not seen as a high priority by many.
“There are laws banning poultry in cities in Thailand and Hong Kong.
We will also carry that out soon,” Indonesian Health Minister Siti
Fadilah Supari told reporters without giving a timeline.
“Principally, I think human beings and poultry need to be separated,”
she added.
The move is likely to face opposition from small poultry farmers who
keep chickens in their backyards to earn money.
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said a set of legal guidelines
was being worked out. “We need law enforcement. We have issued
ministerial edicts regulating that poultry in urban areas need to be
in cages,” he told reporters.
Bird flu has now killed 151 people in nine countries since 2003,
according to figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that can be passed
easily between people, leading to a possible human pandemic which
could kill millions.
However, Indonesia’s chief welfare minister Abrizal Bakrie said there
were no indications this would happen soon.
“There is no indication leading to a pandemic. There has been no
mutation and the spread is still from poultry to humans,” he said
after ministers met to discuss bird flu developments.
U.N. bird flu coordinator David Nabarro said in Bangkok on Friday that
people must not assume a pandemic would start in a particular country.
“In fact, the influenza pandemic could start anywhere because (of) the
capability of moving across borders, carried perhaps by migrating
birds or through trade,” Nabarro told a press conference.
“However, there are certain countries in this region where the level
of H5N1 avian influenza is high,” Nabarro said.
Hiroyuki Konuma, deputy regional representative for the U.N. Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said he was particularly concerned
about Indonesia.
“The virus is widely spread at the moment,” he told the same news
conference.
H5N1 has spread to most of Indonesia, one of the world’s most complex
countries spread across 17,000 islands and with myriad ethnic groups
and languages. (Additional reporting by Vissuta Pothong in Bangkok)
This would seem a step in the right direction. Yay.
Blue - yes it’s a step in the right direction. the problem is impelmenting it in short order in a very poor country.
mods - I think this is already in the news thread. Should this be cloed?
Dear Administrator:
(And I use the term loosely since I’m the administrator here.)
So far you’ve started 5 threads on this forum and 4 of them point back to the same site (which appears to be a for-profit operation). Since you haven’t participated in any other conversations, it makes me wonder if your only purpose here is to drive traffic somewhere else. That would be frowned upon.
Thank you Pogge.
I agree Pogge, he/she seems to be a spammer.
I seriously doubt you’ll hear anything back. I think they call it “blind advertising”.