U.N. urges Indonesia to fight bird flu more aggressively

JAKARTA, Indonesia — United Nations officials are urging Indonesia to take more aggressive steps to contain the bird flu epidemic in poultry before the current human outbreak escalates and spreads beyond the country's borders.

With avian influenza now diagnosed among birds in two-thirds of the country's provinces, Indonesia must begin the immediate culling of poultry in infected areas and revamp its campaign to vaccinate fowl, according to officials from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

The Indonesian government has so far balked at agency guidelines that call for the slaughter of all poultry in the area surrounding an outbreak. Indonesian agriculture officials said they have instead resorted to immunization. But the effort to vaccinate poultry across the country has stalled in many provinces, with coverage far below the threshold required for it be effective, animal health experts said.

The U.N. agency's chief veterinarian, Joseph Domenech, last month called on Indonesia to make avian flu a national priority and said U.N. officials had offered to help the government improve its virus control policies.

Carolyn Benigno, the agency's animal health officer for Asia, said in an interview this past week that the agency has continued to speak with the Indonesians about the steps they should take. "They have new provinces getting outbreaks and occurrences of human deaths. It really raised an alarm," she said.

Since July, international testing has confirmed five human cases of bird flu in Indonesia, including three deaths. Health officials say the actual toll is higher and will probably rise.

International health experts cite Indonesia as one of the weakest links in efforts to head off a global pandemic, in part because of the country's large size and poor health system. Though it remains difficult for humans to catch the disease, the World Health Organization has warned that the virus could mutate into a form easily contracted by people, potentially killing tens of millions worldwide.

Indonesian officials say they have been constrained by a lack of funding and scientific knowledge about the disease. But Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said in an interview that Indonesia has succeeded in limiting the outbreak.

"It's not easy fighting," he said. "Things are getting better now, much better. Things are getting in order."

Since early last year, the government has followed a program to contain bird flu in poultry, improving safeguards on farms and monitoring flocks, as well as vaccinating and, to a limited extent, culling birds, Apriyantono said.