Bird flu hits South Sulawesi in Indonesia

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JAKARTA: Bird flu has struck the Sidenreng Rappang regency, South Sulawesi and as of yesterday, the avian flu virus is reported to have killed about 11,000 birds, mostly ducks.

The Jakarta Post quoted the province’s Husbandry Agency head Abdul Aziz as saying that approximately 7,000 ducks and 4,000 chickens had died, thus far.

“The figure is based on reports which we have received. It could be higher,” he was quoted by the newspaper.

He said his agency had ordered the Sidenreng Rappang Husbandry Agency to isolate the area affected by the H5N1 virus to prevent the spread of the disease.

Abdul Aziz claimed the province was low in stocks of the vaccine and no longer had any medicine.

The agency required a further one million doses of the vaccine as the province was home to about 10 million poultry, he said.

According to a report published by www.healthmap.orgIndonesia, Indonesia has had 197 cases of avian flu, 165 of them fatal, since the current outbreak began in 2003, the most in any country. — Bernama