VZCZCXRO5507
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #4510/01 0970921
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 070921Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2429
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
INFO RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUENMED/BUMED WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEKJCS/CJCS WASHDC
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 9299
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0831
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 1860
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 1781
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 2119
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 3357
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 0055
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0213

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 004510 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/IET, A/MED AND S/ES-O 
DEPT FOR OES/FO, OES/EID, OES/PCI, OES/STC AND OES/IHA 
DEPT PASS TO USDA/FAS/DLP/HWETZEL AND FAS/ICD/LAIDIG 
DEPT ALSO PASS TO USDA/FAS/FAA/DYOUNG AND USDA/APHIS 
DEPT ALSO PASS TO USAID/ANE/CLEMENTS AND GH/CARROLL 
DEPT ALSO PASS TO HHS/BILL STEIGER AND AMAR BHAT 
PARIS FOR FAS/AG MINISTER COUNSELOR 
CANBERRA FOR APHIS/DHANNAPEL 
ROME FOR FAO 
NSC FOR JMELINE 
BANGKOK FOR RMO, CDC, USAID/RDM/A 
USPACOM ALSO PASS TO J07 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO AMED CASC EAGR AMGT PGOV ID KFLU
SUBJECT: INDONESIA - APRIL 6 AVIAN INFLUENZA UPDATE 
 
REF: Jakarta 3896 and previous 
 
JAKARTA 00004510  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Congen Surabaya officers met with 
provincial and municipal animal husbandry officials on March 
16 to review vaccination and culling procedures after the 
first reported avian influenza (AI) outbreak in Surabaya. 
Grobogan Regency officials in Central Java told Congen that 
recent news reports of an AI outbreak in the Regency had 
been overstated.  The Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU-2) 
has identified a new probable AI case, a 23-year old male 
from Bekasi.  End summary. 
 
AI IN SURABAYA 
-------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The City of Surabaya experienced its first outbreak 
of AI on February 15 with the death of three chickens. 
Congen Surabaya officers met with Suhartoyo, recently 
appointed head of the Surabaya Animal Husbandry Office, on 
March 16 to review procedures followed after the discovery 
of AI in the Kedurus area of the city.  Suhartoyo said 
newspaper accounts of the outbreak had been accurate, and 
claimed his office had followed Ministry of Agriculture 
(MOA) outbreak response procedures to the letter.  Upon 
discovery of the dead birds on February 15, Surabaya Animal 
Husbandry officials had examined the birds and arranged to 
have them tested locally.  After determining that the 
presence of AI was highly likely, the city culled all birds 
in a 200-meter radius and sprayed the area with 
disinfectant. 
 
¶3. (U) Upon receiving positive confirmation of AI from an 
official MOA lab in Yogyakarta on February 19, the Surabaya 
Animal Husbandry Office expanded the area of disinfectant 
spraying and requested permission from the mayor to cull all 
birds within a one kilometer radius (there are no commercial 
poultry operations in that area of Surabaya).  The mayor 
granted that authority the following day.  In total, 1,415 
birds were culled over a three-day period, mostly from 
individual households. Suhartoyo noted that since the first 
positive reports of AI in Surabaya, there have been 173 
additional reports of dead birds, none of which had been due 
to AI. 
 
¶4. (U) Suhartoyo stated that the city government compensated 
bird owners 55 cents per bird, using the city's emergency 
funds.  He said the MOA lab in Yogyakarta handles all 
confirmation tests for AI in poultry for fear that local 
government officials might try to influence test results 
from local labs.  In addition, sending the results to a non- 
local lab would deter the possibility of farmers trying to 
inflict economic damage by falsely reporting AI in a 
competing flock, according to Suhartoyo.  (Note: The 
Airlangga University veterinary lab in Surabaya performs 
animal testing for all of Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara 
province). 
 
¶5. (U) Suhartoyo added that since 2004, the City of Surabaya 
has embarked on a poultry vaccination program offering free 
vaccinations to all birds located in the city.  So far, city 
 
JAKARTA 00004510  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
officials have vaccinated more than 21,000 birds with a 
total target of 160,000.  Since the recent outbreak, city 
officials are focusing more attention on the vaccination 
program.  Suhartoyo said his office needs additional 
equipment to effectively carry out bird vaccinations. 
 
MEETING WITH EAST JAVA PROVINCIAL OFFICIALS 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) ConGen Surabaya discussed the recent outbreak of AI 
in Surabaya and the provincial poultry vaccination program 
with Suhadji, Deputy head of the East Java Provincial 
Livestock and Animal Husbandry Department and Bambang 
Hermawan, Head of the Animal Health Division of the 
Department on March 16.  Suhadji stated that his office 
assisted the City of Surabaya Livestock office in dealing 
with its AI outbreak last month, and confirmed that city 
officials followed the proper procedures as set out by the 
MOA.  Suhadji and Hermawan said there are no known human AI 
cases in East Java at this time, as recently stated by the 
Governor.  Suhadji added that provincial officials have 
detected the AI virus in bird populations in 2006 in four 
previously "clean" regencies (Situbondo, Bondowoso, 
Lumajang, and Surabaya).  He added that 29 of the total 38 
East Java regencies and cities are now or have been infected 
with AI. 
 
¶7.  (U) East Java province is administering a large 
vaccination program covering small holders of poultry, 
according to Hermawan.  Provincial officials have vaccinated 
4 million birds in the province so far, with a goal of 23 
million birds in all of the infected regencies.  They are 
not offering vaccinations to large commercial poultry 
operators because provincial officials assume they can 
afford vaccinations for their flocks.  Hermawan complained 
that the province has 1,000 personnel trained to administer 
the vaccines but they lack sufficient medicine and equipment 
to effectively carry out the program.  Hermawan also noted 
that his office has been preemptively spraying disinfectant 
in provincial areas populated with migratory birds, 
including Surabaya, Pasuruan, Sidoarjo and Gresik in an 
effort to delay the spread of the AI virus to domestic 
birds. 
 
AI IN CENTRAL JAVA 
------------------ 
 
¶8.  (U) On March 20, Suara Merdeka newspaper reported the 
death from AI of 1,650 chickens in Grobogan Regency, Central 
Java.  However, Dr. Rianto, Chief Veterinarian from the 
Animal Health Division of Grobogan Regency Livestock and 
Fisheries Office told Congen Surabaya officers on March 23 
that the article had misstated the facts.  Instead, Rianto 
said regency officials had destroyed 200 birds either 
infected with or dead from the AI virus in early 2006.  In 
addition, regency officials destroyed 1,450 birds infected 
or exposed to AI in two different villages during 2004 and 
400,000 dead or infected birds in 2003.  Rianto clarified 
that the large discrepancy between the numbers of birds 
destroyed between 2003 and subsequent years was due to a 
 
JAKARTA 00004510  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
massive reduction of the number of infected birds in the 
regency. 
 
¶9. (U) Rianto said the regency is not culling healthy birds 
in the vicinity of outbreaks, only properly disposing of 
dead birds or culling birds showing symptoms of AI virus 
infection.  Grobogan officials do not follow MOA directives 
to cull all birds within a 1-kilometer radius around an AI 
virus outbreak due to the ineffectiveness of the GOI's 
compensation program for farmers.  Rianto said there is a 
great deal of paperwork involved with making a compensation 
claim, and a MOA representative must come from Jakarta to 
verify and approve any compensation requests, a process that 
is slow and prone to corruption.  "Most local farmers only 
have a few chickens and do not object to our removing birds 
that are already dead or sick without compensation", noted 
Dr. Rianto. 
 
Human AI Case Profile 
--------------------- 
 
¶10. (U) NAMRU-2 has identified a new probable case, a 23- 
year old male from the Jakarta suburb of Bekasi.  Hong Kong 
Laboratories and U.S. Centers for Disease Control, (CDC), 
have confirmed H5N1 in two probable cases, a one-year old 
from Jakarta and a 5- year old from Bekasi.  The Ministry of 
Health (MOH) and NAMRU-2 have petitioned the World Health 
Organization (WHO) to include two older probable cases (an 8- 
year old female and a 45-year old male) as positive for 
H5N1.  Thus, these two victims are included in NAMRU-2's 
total, but are not listed as confirmed by the WHO. 
 
¶11. (SBU)  NAMRU-2 data indicates the following AI-related 
case profile as of April 4: 
 
-- Number of laboratory confirmed (positive PCR and/or 
serology) human AI cases: 33, of which 25 have been fatal 
(fatality rate of 76 percent). 
 
-- Number of probable AI cases: 4, with 2 deaths (fatality 
rate of 50 percent). 
 
-- Number of cases awaiting verification by the US CDC: 4. 
 
-- Number of possible AI cases under investigation: 
approximately 32. 
 
-- Number of excluded AI cases: 248. 
 
PASCOE