Indonesia Says on High Alert Over Bird Flu Threat

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Two children have been hospitalized in Indonesia with suspected bird flu, prompting the government to put the country on high alert on Monday as it struggled to contain a virus that has killed four people.

Adding to fears among the general population in Jakarta, authorities closed the city's main zoo after tests showed some exotic birds had been infected with avian flu.

Officials also said the cash-strapped government had little money to carry out a mass culling of infected poultry or birds.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has killed four Indonesians, including one woman who died in Jakarta a week ago. The virus has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has also spread to Russia and Europe.

"It's a high alert. Every region is on alert so if at any time it occurs in remote areas, we are ready," Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari told reporters, adding the government had not declared a state of emergency.

She earlier said two children were being treated in a Jakarta hospital after initial tests showed they had bird flu, while a third child had showed symptoms and was under observation. The high-alert status means the government can order people suspected of having symptoms to be hospitalized.

Indonesia sends blood tests from all suspected bird flu cases to Hong Kong for confirmation.

Officials announced that the country's biggest zoo, on the outskirts of Jakarta, had been closed for three weeks after bird flu was found to have infected 19 exotic birds.

"It confirms what we have thought for a while, that the H5N1 virus is widely spread in Indonesia," Georg Petersen, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) representative in Indonesia told Reuters when asked to comment on the latest developments.

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono told Reuters that officials had identified bird flu in various exotic birds at Jakarta's popular Ragunan zoo.

"The Jakarta governor has ordered the closure of the zoo for 21 days following reports the birds were detected with the virus," he said, adding officials planned to conduct tests on around 2,100 birds at the zoo.

He said infected birds that were on the list of protected species would be isolated and given medical treatment initially, while others will be killed immediately.

"We have reached a conclusion that we must be prepared to live with bird flu side by side," Apriyantono said.

NO MONEY

Apriyantono later told reporters his ministry had requested more funds to handle the outbreak, but said the government had little money to conduct a mass slaughter of poultry or birds.

"Depopulation will need a huge amount of funds. This year, we need more funds for avian influenza to do research, surveillance and selective depopulation."

The WHO would support recommendations by the World Organization for Animal Health and by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for a mass cull in Indonesia, Petersen said.

Ragunan zoo officials on Monday killed several pigmy chickens while the rest of the infected birds, all protected species, were isolated in different cages, said zoo spokeswoman Titis Sari Muntorini.

Indonesian health officials last week said bird flu had killed a 37-year-old woman who lived near a chicken farm in south Jakarta.

The WHO said last week that bird flu was moving toward becoming transmissible by humans and that the international community had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic.

Most of the people killed in Asia since 2003 caught the virus from infected birds. Health experts say the greatest worry is H5N1 could mutate and become transmissible between people.

(Additional reporting by Yayat Supriatna and Muklis Ali)