Indonesia
needs to improve efforts at both government and community levels in eradicating
avian influenza to be free of the disease by its 2020 target, experts have
said.
Around 40
percent of poultry products sampled at traditional markets in Greater Jakarta
showed high levels of bird flu contamination, James McGrane, the team leader of
the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Emergency Centre for
Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Indonesia, said on Monday.
The
organization, which conducts joint monitoring with the government under the
Live Bird Market (LBM) surveillance framework, found that most outbreaks
occurred during transportation within the market chain.
"The
government will have to invest more over the next four years if further
progress is to be made on the eradication of the disease by the target of
2020," McGrane said.
Indonesia
needs to focus on greater outreach and technical advice for poultry farmers
while also continuing to monitor the circulation of the virus. Furthermore, the
government needs to ensure that locally produced vaccines are well matched and
give good protection, he added.
The
implementation of biosecurity in the market chain as well as on poultry farms,
which separates areas into three zones – dirty, intermediate and clean – has
proven successful in keeping avian influenza out of farms.
"[A]
combination of good vaccination and improved farm biosecurity can assist
poultry farmers to protect their flocks and to maintain their profits and the
profitability of their farms," McGrane said.
The
center will continue to work together with the government as a new
USAID-supported program has recently been implemented to assist in addressing
the issue.
Aside
from bird flu, the latest program called Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT-2) will
focus on the investigation and detection of other disease threats that may
emerge in the wildlife, livestock and human interface across the nation in the
next four years, McGrane said.
The
Agriculture Ministry's director of animal health services I Ketut Diarmita said
the government realized that it needed an extreme change of strategy in order
to be free of bird flu by 2020.
He noted
that farmers' awareness of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) threat
had reduced in recent years, leading to negligence in maintenance.
Knowledge
of improved poultry husbandry was also still low in backyard and commercial
poultry farms, he said. The ministry acknowledged the low awareness of correct
and effective vaccination practices and implementing adequate farm biosecurity.
"There
needs to be consistency and an approach with a focus of eradication
systematically per region," Diarmita said.
However,
the government cannot afford to conduct mass depopulation in poultry farms as
complete monetary compensation to farmers cannot be determined.
Recent
data showed an unexpected increase in poultry infected by the HPAI subtype H5N1
in Indonesia, with 148 cases detected in the first four months of 2016, a rise
from 123 cases throughout the whole of 2015.
The
increased rate is due to inadequate vaccination of poultry flocks, which is
exacerbated by extreme weather changes that decreases poultry's resistance to
disease, Diarmita said.
Liza
Yosephine
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