Preventing Avian Flu, Profit is Prime
 explained FAO collaboration program with Livestock and Agriculture Office of Jogjakarta to prevent zoonoses and eme.jpg)
Tulus Hadi Wardoyo (67) was busy counting the cash from the sale of chickens that day. As an elder of the Terban Market Poultry Traders Community, Yogyakarta, he understands that healthy and disease-free- chickens will bring profit to the sellers like him.
“The trade in chickens sold in this market is around 10 to 30 thousand chickens per day. If the price is 60 thousand rupiah per chicken, the cash flow in this market reaches IDR 1.8 billion per day,” he said.
These chickens are supplied by poultry farmers around Yogyakarta, Klaten and Boyolali. From Terban Market, the chickens reach consumers throughout Yogyakarta, Central Java, West Java and Jakarta.
“We have our own regular customers. Our job is keeping their trust in us by always ensuring the chickens we sell are healthy and not infected by avian influenza,” added the man who has dealt with poultry trading since 1979.
Terban Market Poultry Traders are supported by the Yogyakarta Agriculture and Livestock Service and Market Office to maintain the quality of chickens traded. One of the service is preventing and controlling the Avian Influenza (AI) virus.
“We have a regular poultry disease monitoring program and also cleaning and disinfection of Terban Market. These efforts have been proven to reduce the risk of AI virus in poultry products traded in this market,” said Dyan Artanto, Veterinary Quality Control officer of Yogyakarta City Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Office.
As Terban Market is the only live bird market (LBM) in Yogyakarta, the Yogyakarta Local Government pays great attention to the safety and hygiene of poultry products traded.
“The Agriculture and Livestock Office also raise awareness on market hygiene and cleanliness. We encourage traders to disinfect their own trading stalls while the office provides disinfectants, cleaning equipment and training in proper disinfection procedures,” Dyan added.
The government also implements active surveillance to monitor the presence of AI virus in markets.
“We conduct active surveillance in the live bird market at least 3-4 times a year. This activity can be intensified if there is demand from the Agriculture and Livestock Office,” explained Dr Hendra Wibawa, officer in charge of the Biotechnology Laboratory, at the Wates Disease Investigation Centre (DIC), Yogyakarta.
EPT2 Program
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia together with the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Disease (ECTAD), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) encourage the strengthening of surveillance systems to detect, control and prevent Avian Influenza.
Surveillance is conducted to monitor the circulation of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus in the field, to detect any viral re-assortment and measure the effectiveness of HPAI control program activities.
“Surveillance is also conducted at commercial farms to ensure the health of poultry before being sold in the market,” added DIC staff who act as trainers for FAO-ECTAD poultry farm biosecurity improvement activities.
The control and prevention of avian influenza is also done through laboratory capacity building.
"Strengthening DIC laboratory capacity is important as they play a role in investigating and diagnosing animal diseases," explained Nining Hartaningsih, senior national technical advisor, FAO-ECTAD Indonesia.
FAO provides technical assistance to the DIC through: trainings, development of the Influenza Virus Monitoring (IVM) online platform, development of laboratory mapping tools and introduction of the PREDICT diagnostic test protocols for five virus families (Influenza, Paramyxo, Corona, Filo, and Flavi).
According to Nining Hartaningsih the impact of FAO-ECTAD assistance can be seen from the increased human resource capacity and the allocation of government financing to ensure biosafety and biosecurity.
"In 2004, the government took a year to declare the existence of HPAI virus clade 2.1.3. By 2012 we were able to confirm the existence of the new HPAI virus clade 2.3.2 in less than two months, "explained Nining.
Technical assistance to disease investigation centres is a part of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats2 (EPT2) Program. EPT-2 is a collaboration between a number of international institutions, universities and research centres such as: FAO, WHO, PREDICT-2 (led by Bogor Agricultural Institute and Eijkman Institute), Preparedness and Response (P&R), One Health Workforce (led by INDOHUN), the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Acknowledgement
Ryan Washburn, the Acting Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for Indonesia appreciated the efforts of the Government of Indonesia in preventing and coping with outbreaks of avian flu virus. This message was delivered during his visit to DIC Wates, February 12, 2018.
"The decline in the number of avian flu cases both in poultry and humans is proof that the Government of Indonesia has made various efforts to detect, prevent and respond to Avian Influenza viruses," he explained.
Terban Market is getting quieter by noon. It's time for the sellers to go home to count their profit.
"We are happy about the current situation. The government pays attention to the continuity of our businesses. Efforts by the government to prevent the spread of bird flu enable us to gain mor profit," said Tulus while closing the last chicken coop that day.