REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The government is implementing measures to prevent an outbreak of bird flu in the country, following the reported outbreak of the disease in Australia, according to a senior minister. 

"The preventive measures were discussed during a coordination meeting with relevant ministers," Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Agung Laksoso said here on Thursday. "The government will take various steps, including increased surveillance and guidance, as well as a ban on poultry imports from Australia." 

"The central and regional governments are taking all preventive steps necessary in view of the bird flu outbreak in Australia," Agung added.

Agriculture Minister Suswono, who also attended the coordination meeting, said the ban on poultry imports from Australia would be lifted after the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) declared that Australia was free from bird flu.

"Australia has been declared as a country where bird flu has spread significantly. Therefore, we will resume poultry imports from there only after OIE declares that the country is free from the disease," he said. "This time, the bird flu there has been caused by a new type of virus, namely H5N1 clade 2.3.2. Previously, it was the H5N1 clade 2.1.3 virus that had caused the outbreak of the disease."

On the occasion, Agung said, "Up to now, however, there have no reports of the virus spreading from birds to human beings, like we had seen the previous time around."

However, he added, the government would proactively implement all preventive measures to protect the Indonesian people from the disease.

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