An Indonesian senior official said Wednesday that the country planned to curb the spreading of avian influenza virus by 2014, after taking more intensive phase of combative measures between 2009 and 2011, Xinhua reported. "If all goes well, the nation will be free of the highly pathogenic bird flu virus by 2014," the Jakarta Post daily on Wednesday quoted Tjeppy D. Soedjana, the Indonesian Agriculture Ministry's Director General for Animal Husbandry, as saying. Soedjana said that the Ministry mitigated bird flu spreading in only two of Indonesia's 33 provinces so far, namely Gorontalo, in North Sulawesi, and North Maluku. West Kalimantan will be the next target for the mitigation program conducted by the Ministry before next April. According to the Agricultural Ministry's records, 294 regencies in 31 Indonesian provinces have reported bird flu outbreaks this year, with a total of 46,014 poultry deaths nationwide. The government, he added, would also intervene markets and take rehabilitative measures to support the poultry industry.
