Bird flu: 'People need educating'

The recent deaths of two Indonesian teenagers from bird flu means that the country now has the world's highest human death toll from the H5N1 virus.

Here, two Indonesian poultry farmers reflect on how the problem should be handled.

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Firman Gunadi, a poultry breeder from Java, believes that backyard farming has to stop if bird flu is to be controlled.

Firman Gunadi believes backyard farming in Indonesia must end

Indonesia may be the worst-affected country in the world. But with all respect for human life, and considering that I'm involved in the poultry sector, I'm more interested in how this could happen rather than the numbers.

So what went wrong then?

The latest casualty raised chickens in his backyard. This is not how you should raise chickens but it is how many across the country do. The birds won't have had the proper vaccinations and the environment is likely to have been unclean and damp.

But they just wouldn't have known any better. The young man would have had no information or experience about the symptoms of avian flu in birds.

So he would have had direct contact with the dying birds and exposed himself to the infection like that.

People still do backyard farming as a hobby or for additional income. The government has to address this because the risks of improper backyard farming are great. This may sounds unwise, but if we can avoid such practices, this issue can be dealt with.

All commercial poultry breeders are well-informed of the risks and they do not want to gamble with their investments. I'm fully confident that all the proper sanitation measures are in place.

We spend a lot of money on proper clothing for staff, hand wash and foot baths, disinfectant fluids and proper vaccinations. It's business as usual for the bigger farmers.

And people on the street are not in fear.

But we in the poultry sector are sometimes puzzled as to who is really in command. There seem to be too many decision-makers, too many conflicts of interest when it comes to this issue.

Life goes on nonetheless. We've been through this before.

But one serious risk we must consider is the possibility of human-to-human transmission. When we can deal better with avian flu in the poultry sector, and this includes the problem of backyard farming, then we must consider that challenge.

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Ivan Zadir, a poultry breeder in North Sumatra, says the real challenge is educating people about bird flu.

Ivan Zadir says most farmers adhere to bio-security measures

Poultry farmers are not exactly calm but they are pragmatic.

We cannot say we do not care because we do. This is a virus, which you cannot see or touch, but it is causing the death of poultry and of people.

But I also think too much emphasis is placed on bird flu. Many more people die of other causes.

And for us in farming, it's business as usual. There is not much we can do about this situation. It is not in our hands

We adhere to all the bio-security measures, we take care of our health and make sure poultry remain safe. But the real task is in educating people.

Poultry shouldn't be kept in close proximity to humans, for example.

There is real anger and confusion about the way this issue has been handled. In our country people have ideas but don't really implement them. We don't have the infrastructure to deal with such problems.

What we need to see is a cultural shift led from above, people need to be educated about how to co-exist with poultry. But this will take time.