Unair Develops Bird Flu Vaccine

Surabaya (Antara Bali) - A team of researchers from Airlangga State University (Unair) in Surabaya, East Java province, has developed a bird flu vaccine for poultry, including ducks.

"We have prepared a bird flu vaccine for animals and therefore hope ducks that haven't contracted avian flu can be vaccinated," the chairman of Unair Bird Flu Research Centre, Nidom MS, said here on Wednesday.

He noted that ducks infected with bird flu were more dangerous than chickens because they could spread the virus through river water.

"Therefore, the government should not underestimate the danger from ducks with bird flu," Nidom pointed out.

The bird flu virus in chickens is easier to overcome because those birds are always kept at one place, as is the norm in the animal husbandry system, he explained.

"However, unlike chickens, ducks swim in rivers and the virus can spread to hundreds of kilometres," he noted.

Therefore, Nidom expressed suspicion that the outbreak of bird flu among ducks in various parts of Central Java and East Java was a result of the virus spreading through floodwaters from Bengawan Solo river.(*/DWA)