ONE of the government policies in livestock area is to develop local resources, through, for example, conservation of germplasm and conduct in-depth study to make the local breeds economically feasible to be developed. Indonesia has many germplasm but unfortunately don’t get enough attention due to many limitations. In waterfowl species, there are several type of ducks that have potential to be developed such as Bali Duck, Alabio, Mojosari, Tegal to name a few.

In fact, duck farming has been played a role as an alternative income source among the farmer community in rural area to produce eggs and meat, but yet in the national economic activities. There are several potential areas for duck farm business in Indonesia such as Cirebon, Brebes, Tegal, Mojosari, South Kalimantan, Bali and Lombok which are already known as duck producing areas.

Increasing the role of waterfowl or any other germplasm in the economic activities may be achieved through the development of information center and government involvement in the commercialization of livestock local breeds.

AMID the fear of the bird flu epidemic, a local clinic reported four patients suspected of having anthrax in Makassar, the capital city of South Sulawesi Province, eastern Indonesia last month.

The local government ordered preventive measures in order to prevent further spread of the disease, although there is no report of human to human (communicable) infections so far.

The four patients have been treated in the local clinic based on the standard procedures for anthrax infection. Two of the patients work in a local animal slaughtering center, and two other patients are living in the same neighborhood with them. The mayor of Makassar, Ilham Arief Sirajuddin has ordered all animals slaughtered near the center of the city to stop sending meats to other regions until authorities confirm the safety of meat.

As the intestinal disease form of anthrax may follow the consumption of contaminated meat, local authorities urged examination of all meats in the processing center. “Food safety is a sensitive issue. We have experienced the drop of chicken meat sales in recent months due to bird flu, and the similar trend might occur for meat sales due to anthrax-phobia. We need to act properly and providing correct information to people,” the mayor explained.

The local clinic stated that it is closely watching the condition of the patients and has been working with the authorities to investigate the possible source of infections.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture explained that it already urged the anthrax-prone regions across the country to provide vaccinations three months  ago.

INDONESIAN government has placed the funds for handling the bird flu, amounting to Rp 200 billion, on its budget next year. Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said that the funds were aimed at conducting bio-security, monitoring and the cleansing of the farms. He said that these funds were much larger than the aid offered by the US, Japanese and Dutch governments, that totaled US$10 million (around Rp 100 billion). “We will still discuss the form of the aid,” Apriyantono stated.

Anton added that the available funding was deemed sufficient to locate new cases of bird flu, sterilize infected areas with disinfectant and conduct a selective cull, as well as to empower regional husbandry agencies to impede the virus. Meanwhile, the offer from the World Bank, Apriyantono said, was yet to be stated in numbers. The World Bank was still trying to collect funds from the donor countries.

According to Apriyantono, the amount of the funds indicates that Western countries see that handling of the bird flu cannot be done only by the mass annihilation of chickens and other types of birds.

In addition, Anton Apriyantono said the government might not need to perform a mass cull, because it is not an effective way of rooting out the avian influenza virus.

“It is not true that a mass cull is the only way to prevent the (bird flu) outbreak. Our method in fighting the virus is on the right track and we only need to expand the scale,” Anton stated.

He explained that a mass cull would cause serious social unrest, since the government could not provide sufficient compensation for poultry farmers, who would lose profits. “Many households in Indonesia have chickens that roam around the house freely. The social impact would be too huge to bear. A mass cull is only effective in newly affected areas, not in areas where it has already become endemic,” divulged Anton.

His ministry concedes that thoroughly destroying all birds within a three-kilometer radius of an affected area is the best way to combat the virus. However, even that selective type of cull has never been implemented effectively because the ministry considers it to be “too expensive”, preferring instead to pay for vaccines for the animals.

The mass culling in Thailand, Apriyantono said, indicated that this measure was not effective. The virus reappeared in the areas where the fowls have been destroyed. “The obliteration of the fowls will not automatically destroy the virus,” he stated.

This has been carried out in the Netherlands. However, the farming system in the Netherlands is more organized and modern compared to Indonesia. Moreover, the number of fowls destroyed in the Netherlands is only 30 million or one-third of the total population. In Indonesia, Apriyantono said, the fowls were distributed in small farms.

PRESIDENT Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said, Indonesia needed a national movement involving central and regional governments to overcome bird flu outbreak that would involve central and local governments. “We will need a national movement and this will involve central and regional governments,” the President said after a cabinet session on bird flu last month.

As a follow up, the President said, governors throughout the country hold a coordinative meeting to discuss moves to overcome bird flu outbreak in districts, cities and provinces. “We also seek public participation as well as non governmental organizations to implement the national movement in the field,” President Yudhoyono added.

The government would overcome the problem from its upstream or poultry as the source and from its downstream or human.

As parts of preventive efforts, the government would conduct door-to-door surveillance that would involve volunteers and students. “Basically, this is a public movement. But I called on Agriculture and Health Ministries to consider tip for volunteers to carry out their duties,” the President said.

Yudhoyono said, he has decided to establish a desk at the office of Coordinating Minister for People‘s Welfare that would work 24 hours a day to monitor development of the outbreak. The head of state has also called on related institutions to monitor birds’ movement, especially pigeons which have the potential to spread bird flu virus while people should keep hygiene in their environment.

Yudhoyono would invite volunteers and students to monitor bird flu outbreak in potential regions, and sought military help to monitor the outbreak in remote areas.