The district`s related authorities need to keep monitoring the threat of bird flu in a sustainable way partly due to the area`s big chicken population, Enjuswatiningsih said.
Speaking to newsmen here Tuesday, Enjuswatiningsih, head of Cirebon district`s agriculture, plantation, livestocks, and forestry office, said the district had 2.2 million ducks and chickens.
However, the related authorities could only vaccinate 20,000 chickens and ducks or just about seven percent of the total population annually, she said.
Therefore, the chickens that could be vaccinated by her office were those in only 10 of 40 sub-districts in Cirebon district annually, she said.
Apart from this limited vaccination capability, she said her people were assisted by the presence of UN`s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)`s Participatory Disease Surveillance and Response team members.
These teams` members worked with village administrators and local residents to prevent the spread of bird flu virus in an early stage, she said.
Last year, there were 52 bird flu cases but over the past two months of 2011, there were only two chickens confirmed to have been infected by this deadly virus, she said.
Indonesia has 33 provinces. Only three have been confirmed free from the bird flu threat.
Indonesia has been plagued by bird flu since 2005. However, the H5N1 type influenza is also known to have attacked chickens and birds in other Asian countries, such as Thailand, Cambodia, China, and Vietnam.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), avian influenza or "bird flu" is a contagious disease among animals caused by a virus that normally infects only birds and, less commonly, pigs.
WHO has warned that avian influenza can spread very rapidly in a poultry or fowl population.
Over the past three weeks of January 2011, bird flu has also infected chickens in Mugirejo village, Sungai Pinang subdistrict, in Samarinda, East Kalimantan.
A bird flu outbreak had also spread in Kerinci district, Jambi province, recently.
According to a veterinarian in West Java, the bird flu virus attacking Indonesia was classified as "highly pathogenic avian influenza" (HPAI).(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
