Indonesia

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 is endemic in Indonesia and controlling the disease will be very difficult. Indonesia has the world’s fourth largest population spread over thousands of islands. The government is decentralized and unable to execute a coordinated effort to control avian influenza.

Indonesia reported an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza to the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) on February 2, 2004, and stated the first outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza occurred in December 2003. By September 2005 Indonesia had reported 216 outbreaks in poultry and an estimated 150 million birds had died or been culled.

Indonesia choose to only cull infected poultry, due in part to limited finances, and instead relied on mass vaccinations and bio-security. The number of chicken deaths dropped after the vaccination program began, however the vaccinations did not prevent infection and instead “masked” the presence of the virus.

Public awareness is low in the densely populated countryside and farmers are reluctant to endure the economic loss from culling poultry if they are not reimbursed for the financial loss. Many farmers are unable to tell the difference between avian influenza and Newcastle disease, which has similar symptoms, and veterinary care is rudimentory. Most of these producers have free-ranging poultry. These are all major constraints for effective disease reporting, movement control, and surveillance.

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago state and consists of over 17,000 islands covering 741,283 square miles between Asia and Australia. Indonesia shares borders with East Timor, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea and the land boundaries total 1,758 miles. The population of about 245.5 million speaks several hundred local languages. The government was decentralized in 2001 and the 440 districts or regencies became the key administrative units for providing most government services. The patchwork of local, regional and national bureaucracies often send mixed messages. Without a centralized government, there has not been a coordinated effort to curb the outbreaks. The greatest losses have been among an estimated 30 million backyard village households keeping about 200 million chickens.

Indonesia has a large poultry industry and 80 percent of the poultry produced in Indonesia is produced by three large commercial componies which are vertically integrated systems with substantial capacity.

Poultry are the smallest livestock investment a village household can make. Family flocks provide a small income from the sale of eggs and the live birds are a flexible source of cash. A study on income generation in transmigrant farming systems in East Kalimantan, Indonesia showed that family poultry accounted for about 53 percent of the total income. A long term government transmigration program has moved millions of people from densely populated areas to such as Bali and Java, to less populated islands such as Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Since 2003, H5N1 has become endemic throughout the country while public awareness has remained low in many areas. Although most poultry is produced in large integrated commercial systems, there are a large number of transmigrant farming systems where small numbers of poultry are raised free range. Indonesia lacks the finances and central control necessary to provide surveillance, compensation and education to fight the spread of avian influenza
Source: CIA World Factbook, U.S. Census Bureau, OIE (World Organization for Animal Health), U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome.

Philippines to Resume Poultry Exports to Japan

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries lifted the import ban on Philippine poultry and poultry products on May 24, 2006. In July, 2005 Japan temporarily suspended all imports of poultry and poultry products from the Phiippines following the Philippine Buearu of Animal Industry's (BAI) announcement of a detection of a H5 avian influenza (AI)strain in a duck farm in Bulacan. Further testing found exposure to a low pathogenic avian influenza and the Philippines has since remained free of AI.

According to the Philippine Department of Agriculture, poultry exports to Japan may resume by June 7, 2006. From January to July, 2005, the Philippines exported 2,605 MT of chicken to Japan, including U.S. chicken leg quarters that were further processed in the Philippines.
Source: USDA/FAS/Attache Report

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Source: USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - 6th June 2006