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JAKARTA : Officials carrying out door-to-door checks in Jakarta to enforce a ban on domestic poultry were overwhelmed by the number of birds they found, authorities said on Thursday.
The ban on raising poultry in the Indonesian capital was introduced to tackle bird flu which has killed six people so far this year in the nation.
Indonesia has suffered the highest human death toll from bird flu with 63 fatalities since June 2005. Five of the six deaths this year were in Jakarta and surrounding areas.
Health and municipal officials searched backyards amid torrential rain after Jakarta governor Sutiyoso decreed that no birds other than licensed pets would be allowed in residential areas of the city.
Animal husbandry officials said more than 100,000 birds had been slaughtered so far, but it is estimated there are more than one million birds still in Jakarta.
Sutiyoso admitted many birds were found despite residents being given two weeks' notice to kill them.
"The huge numbers of poultry in Jakarta are overwhelming officers," he said without giving numbers.
Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta said on Wednesday that Indonesia may declare bird flu a national disaster, which would free up funds and permit nationwide coordination to fight the disease.
Under the decree, all backyard poultry will be seized and killed without compensation. Many residents were reluctant to obey the ban.
In East Jakarta, one woman said she was reluctant to get rid of her young free-range chickens.
"We will give you seven days to either sell, consume or move your chickens," district head Ahmad Nizar told her in a broadcast on ElShinta radio.
"My chickens are too young to sell or eat," she replied.
Also in East Jakarta, 15-year-old Ismail told AFP he had sold almost all his chickens and other birds.
"I keep one upstairs, I don't want to give away Ipuk," the teenager said of his favourite pet. People are allowed to keep pet birds as long as they get a health certificate for them.
"I don't know where I can get a certificate, I just hope they will not get my bird," Ismail said.
Officials say about 80 percent of pet birds have been given certificates.
Under the measure, poultry farms and slaughter houses are also to be moved away from residential areas.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari has said the ban would be extended to cover the whole country, but the World Health Organisation warned it would be difficult to enforce in areas that central authorities do not control.
Efforts to curb the spread of the virus have been hampered by reluctance of backyard farmers to hand over their sick or potentially infected birds for slaughter.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has recommended Indonesia carry out blanket vaccination in heavily infected areas and of all day-old chicks before they are distributed across the country.
Scientists fear the H5N1 avian influenza virus could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.
At least 164 people have died from bird flu since 2003, according to WHO figures. - AFP/de
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