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'Fit chickens can carry bird flu'
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
A healthy chicken could be a carrier of the bird flu virus although it shows no symptoms of the illness, a health official warned Wednesday.
Head of the West Java Animal Husbandry Office, Rachmat Setiadi, said the warning was made following the discovery of healthy chickens that tested positive with H5N1 virus from a serology test conducted on 20 chickens around the house of two dead flu victims -- 23-year-old IJ and his 20-year-old brother -- in Kebonwaru area, Batunggal.
He said earlier, only chickens and ducks are believed to carry the virus.
"The test has shown that four healthy chickens were infected with H5N1. We should be more cautious," he said Wednesday in Bandung.
Currently, people are only made aware of the danger of bird flu when chickens die suddenly in their neighborhood, but Rachmat said healthy chickens could also be carriers.
Out of Bandung's 26 cities and regencies, only two -- Tasikmalaya city and Ciamis regency -- are free of H5N1 virus in poultry.
He said cases where healthy chickens were infected with bird flu had occurred not only in Bandung, but also in other cities and regencies. However, he did not name the cities or regencies.
He recommended that residents stop keeping chickens in their backyards or near their houses.
Meanwhile, serology tests on 11 dogs kept by the family of the bird flu cluster in Kebonwaru have came back negative, according to head of Bandung City Agriculture Office, Yogi Supardjo.
He said the result showed that dogs could not spread the virus.
He said his office was currently working on a public campaign in 26 districts to make people aware of the threat of bird flu following the deaths of IJ and TJ.
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Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
A healthy chicken could be a carrier of the bird flu virus although it shows no symptoms of the illness, a health official warned Wednesday.
Head of the West Java Animal Husbandry Office, Rachmat Setiadi, said the warning was made following the discovery of healthy chickens that tested positive with H5N1 virus from a serology test conducted on 20 chickens around the house of two dead flu victims -- 23-year-old IJ and his 20-year-old brother -- in Kebonwaru area, Batunggal.
He said earlier, only chickens and ducks are believed to carry the virus.
"The test has shown that four healthy chickens were infected with H5N1. We should be more cautious," he said Wednesday in Bandung.
Currently, people are only made aware of the danger of bird flu when chickens die suddenly in their neighborhood, but Rachmat said healthy chickens could also be carriers.
Out of Bandung's 26 cities and regencies, only two -- Tasikmalaya city and Ciamis regency -- are free of H5N1 virus in poultry.
He said cases where healthy chickens were infected with bird flu had occurred not only in Bandung, but also in other cities and regencies. However, he did not name the cities or regencies.
He recommended that residents stop keeping chickens in their backyards or near their houses.
Meanwhile, serology tests on 11 dogs kept by the family of the bird flu cluster in Kebonwaru have came back negative, according to head of Bandung City Agriculture Office, Yogi Supardjo.
He said the result showed that dogs could not spread the virus.
He said his office was currently working on a public campaign in 26 districts to make people aware of the threat of bird flu following the deaths of IJ and TJ.
.
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