Bird flu has killed more than 12,000 chickens and quails on Indonesia's densely populated Java island, a government official said Thursday. Outbreaks hit several parts of Indonesia last year, but no human infections have been reported in the country. Indonesia's latest outbreak occurred in West Java province and has killed more than 12,000 chickens and quails over the past two months, an official with the government's Animal Husbandry Office said on condition of anonymity. The official identified the viruses involved as H5N1 and H7N1. The H5N1 strain has jumped to humans in some areas, killing a total of 46 people from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. The World Health Organization has warned that if the current avian flu virus mutates into a form that spreads easily among people, it could trigger a global flu pandemic. The disease killed about 1.6 million chickens in the same region in Indonesia last year, the official said. Media reports said officials in the region were distributing vaccines, media reports said. Avian flu emerged in Asia in 2003 and has killed millions of birds.
