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GOVT
TO REGULATE DOMESTIC POULTRY TRADE TO CURB BIRD FLU
Jakarta
- Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry intends to regulate domestic
poultry trading actvities in an effort to curb the spread of bird
flu in the country. Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said on
Tuesday (30/1/2007) that under the new regulations only trade in
processed (slaughtered) poultry would be allowed.
He
said live poultry could easily become carriers of the virus and thus
a medium for the transmisson of the virus so therefore their
transportation from one region to another needed to be stopped.
He
said chickens that had been slaughtered, boiled or chlorinated were
more protected against the bird flu virus. "Therefore, poultry
farms must eventually be integrated with poultry slaughter
houses," he said after receiving US$500,000 worth of
bird-flu-fighting equipment and materials from the South Korean
government.
He
said the regulations, however, would only be applied to large-scale
poultry farms which would also have to be located away from
residential areas. The Minister said the government would give
assistance to people's farms to build slaughter houses and the
relevant licences.
The
minister said the regulations would be made in cooperation with the
Trade Ministry and were expected
to be issued in two weeks' time.
Regarding
people's objections to the government's poultry culling policy, the
Minister said the policy
was not aimed at eradicating poultry but creating order in the
poultry breeding sector.
"Culling
will only be carried out on infected chickens or those that have a
high risk of infection," he said. Separately, members of the
Federation of Nusantara Poultry Farmer Organizations (Gopan) and
National Poultry Market Information Center urged the government to
immediately regulate and improve the system of poultry production in
farms.
Gopan
Chairman Tri Hardiyanto said the
outbreaks of bird flu in the country had caused panic among the
people so that they were now afraid to consume poultry meat. He
called on the government to conduct a poultry-eating campaign in
order to allay people's fear. (Antara, 31/1/2007)
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