National Commission on Bird Flu has revealed that 50 percent of traditional markets that slaughter and sell chickens are highly prone to outbreaks of bird flu virus.
Head of the commission, Bayu Krisnamurthi, told there were many such vulnerable markets in Jakarta. Bayu said bird flu could spread easily because the markets did not set special zones for slaughtering, selling and accommodating live chickens.
Between 2002 and 2008, the Agriculture Ministry reported 13 million poultry had been culled in 31 provinces. Only two provinces -- Maluku Utara and Gorontalo --- were apparently free of the disease.
The ministry's director general of husbandry, Tjeppy D. Soedjana,said, in controlling the spread of the virus the ministry needed to focus on Banten, Jakarta, Bali, West Java, East Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, South Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Maluku, Papua and Nusa Tenggara.
Bayu said there was a “strong indication” that poultry markets across western Java were affected. Flouting of market regulations could give rise to a new main source of bird-to-human infections, he added.
“Markets with no zoning, in which the required three separate zones — for poultry pens, slaughterhouses and retail outlets — are not implemented, could pose higher risks of becoming a source of infections, as could markets using the same facilities for multiple species,” Bayu said.
This raises a question: Why are Maluku Utara and Gorontalo free of B2B H5N1?
