"We have made on-the-spot checks and taken data and we can say that so far nobody in the neighborhood has been infected with the H5N1 virus," Dwi Susanto, a member of the Bogor City Health Office`s surveillance team, said on Saturday.
Two people in Kampung Kayu Manis in Bogor city`s Tanah Sareal ward where the chickens died were found to be sick but a medical check showed them to be suffering from the common flu, he said.
But Anwar, the head of a neighborhood association in Kampung Kayu Manis said , the number of chickens that had died suddenly increased to 32 on Saturday.
"Six more chickens died today bringing the total number to 32 since last January 19," he told reporters who met him in the ward.
The sudden chicken deaths began last Thursday and Anwar himself had already lost four of his chickens.
Anwar said almost all people in the ward were raising chickens or birds either to meet their daily needs or as a hobby. The 32 dead chickens belonged to 13 residents of the ward where a total of 53 families or 250 people lived. .
A rapid test conducted on one of the dead chickens by officers from Bogor city`s agricultural office on Friday had confirmed it had died of bird flu.
The very first flu outbreak in Bogor happened in 2005 and two of its residents died of the disease in 2009. (T.KR-LR/HAJM/H-YH)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
