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Pamekasan, E Java (ANTARA News) - Pamekasan regency`s veterinary office here Tuesday has destroyed 270 bird flu-infected chickens to prevent the spread of this dangerous virus in East Java.

Those infected chickens were burned down in Pademawu Timur village, Pademawu Suburb, by local veterinary and health officials.

"We destroy the chickens to protect us from the infection of bird flu virus," Head of Pamekasan`s Veterinary Office Hanafi Hendrayana said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), avian influenza or "bird flu" is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs.

The WHO has warned that the infection with avian influenza viruses could spread very rapidly through poultry flocks.

Over these past few days, the bird flu viruses had attacked a few hundreds of chicken in Pademawu Timur village. The number of infected chickens tended to increase, he said.

By January 11, at least 270 chickens had been positively confirmed after the veterinary officials came to the village to conduct a rapid test to 100 chickens, which reportedly got sudden death.

All of the chickens belonged to local resident, Yuni Astuti, he said, adding that this case was the second over these past seven months.

Hendrayana said the first bird flu attack was found in mid 2009. At that time, 40 chicken of Proppo Suburb residents suddenly died.

The veterinary officials, who came to the area, found that the sudden death of those ill-fated chickens was positively bird flu virus, he added.

Indonesia has been dealing with the bird flu cases since 2005. However, this H5N1 typed influenza is also recorded to have attacked chicken and birds in other Asian countries, such as Thailand, Cambodia, China, and Viet Nam.
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Editor: Suryanto
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