Indonesia To Ban Poultry Farms in Capital

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Indonesia will re-arrange zoning for the poultry industry, banning farms and slaughterhouses in the teeming capital in a bid to stop the spread of the bird flu virus that has killed four people, an official said on Thursday.

JAKARTA — Indonesia will re-arrange zoning for the poultry industry, banning farms and slaughterhouses in the teeming capital in a bid to stop the spread of the bird flu virus that has killed four people, an official said on Thursday.


"Looking ahead we will rearrange the poultry industry in Indonesia to prevent the passing of zoonotic diseases from animals to humans," Mathur Riady, director-general of poultry at the Agriculture Ministry told reporters.


"For instance, there should not be any slaughtering houses for chickens in greater Jakarta," he said.


"A metropolitan city like Jakarta should not turn into the home of poultry farms," Riady added. He did not say whether the new rules would cover backyard slaughtering.


Zoonotic diseases are those that can be transmitted between or are shared by animals and humans.


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It was unclear when the new measures would be effective, and Riady conceded that the move to ban slaughterhouses and farms in the capital, a congested city of about 12 million people, would face social and economic problems.


Some poultry farms in greater Jakarta lie near or in the middle of residential areas.


Many urban-area households in Indonesia also keep livestock, especially chickens, in their yards.


Riady said the number of chickens killed by bird flu was 800,000 so far in 2005, from 5.3 million in the whole of 2004.


The U.N. World Health Organisation last week warned bird flu was moving towards a form that could be passed between humans and the world had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic.


Indonesian doctors are observing 11 patients with bird flu-like symptoms, the health minister said on Thursday, amid fears the avian influenza outbreak is spreading.


On Monday, the government imposed a state of high alert, which gives authorities the power to order people showing symptoms of the virus to be hospitalised.


Besides Indonesia, bird flu has killed 44 people in Vietnam, 12 people in Thailand and four in Cambodia.


Source: Reuters