# 5075
A well written background story this morning from Inside Indonesia, that gives us a number of reasons why attempts to control bird flu in that hard hit nation over the past seven years have failed to stem the spread of the disease.
The stories you will read in this feature article could easily be told about other bird flu endemic regions around the globe – including Egypt, Vietnam, and India.
Despite the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into the fight against bird flu, many bird owners still go uncompensated when their flocks are culled, making them (and others) less inclined to report sick or dying birds.
In Indonesia, vaccination teams have been implicated in spreading the bird flu virus – not through the vaccine – but on their clothing and shoes as they move from one village to the next.
Many bird owners simply don’t believe that raising backyard chickens – a practice that has gone on for generations – could possibly represent a disease threat to them or their families.
And so sick birds are often relegated to the stew pot and dead birds end up tossed into the river, rather than being reported to the authorities. Owners hide their small poultry holdings when bird flu vaccination teams arrive in a village to `protect’ them.
In the face of inadequate and oft times bungled bureaucratic responses, these reactions are understandable, even if ill-advised.
And so the H5N1 virus goes on, unabated.
Scott Naysmith
Efforts to control avian influenza need to consider the importance of birds in Indonesians’ lives
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