By : Muhammad Nizar
It started in late December 2005, during rainy season that created puddles everywhere. Zulfahmi, 18 years old, together with his friends were surprised to see some chickens died floating in the water. They immediately informed other villagers. The people were shocked, what is going on? Some people initiated to find out the owners of those chickens. After some meetings, eventually they identified the owner of the dead chickens. Apparently the chickens died suddenly. The owner himself did not know what happened to his chickens. Then more chicken owners reported that their chickens died suddenly. At that time, Zulfahmi and the villagers did not put any suspicion on the many sudden deaths in chickens.
Later on, a villager who was also a national television journalist, Mukhtar, took the initiative to report the strange event to the Livestock Service of Banda Aceh City. Officers came to take blood samples from chicken carcasses. As Zulfahmi remembered, it took a week to have the result of the sample test and announced it to the anxious villagers. “The chickens that died some time ago were positively infected by bird flu or Avian Influenza” said an officer from the Livestock Service. The villagers did not know what bird flu was. This issue became a hot discussion topic in coffee shops where people often gather. They wonder why the name of the disease is bird flu. The affected ones are chickens, not birds, aren’t they? As the result, since the sample test result was officially announced, Lamdom village was declared as the first area infected by bird flu in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province.
Aceh government immediately took actions before the virus spread widely, through educational session for the people by the Livestock Service in cooperation with the Local Health Service. The people were requested not to be panic but should stay alert on their poultry conditions. Government requested that potentially infected chickens are burned and buried. The people were also asked not to sell live chickens, let alone the carcasses. Hundreds of live poultry belong to Lamdom villagers were culled, burned and buried. It is the proper way to depopulate chickens infected by avian influenza (AI) virus.
Zulfahmi recalled a funny incident during the depopulation. ”At that time the villagers who did not know exactly how AI virus is transmitted, brought their chickens without wearing gloves to the front yard of musholla (place for praying), when actually they had been given gloves and mask,” he said smiling. The same condition was also seen when the people who was given the task to cull around 100 birds did not properly wear masks. The masks were used pulled under the chin or above the nose. “I was wondering to see that not only they did not wear masks, but they also did not wear gloves. What I know is that direct contact is dangerous. They just did it like slaughtering chickens for parties,” said Zulfahmi. At that time the information on the danger of bird flu was not comprehensive yet. People should wear gloves when handling chicken carcass and wear mask on the face. The slaughtered chickens should be collected in one hole, then burned and buried. Each culled chicken was compensated by the government amounting to Rp.12,500. This is the government’s effort to guarantee safety to the people and encourage support from the community to control bird flu. The benefit of this effort was proven later on. Zulfahmi himself had to give voluntarily 20 of his chickens to be culled. ”But I had to be sincere as it was indeed for the goodness of all” he said convincingly.
Lamdom Village in Lueng Bata Sub district is located just 5 km away from the center of Banda Aceh city, covering an area about 73 hectares. It is resided by 285 households and 1375 people; the surrounding is filled with many big trees. Generally one household owns a 400-m2 land; therefore it is suitable for the people to practice livestock farming. The mainland is planted with mango, sawo (sapodilla), banana trees and even thatch trees are found in some places. If we come to this village, it looks like visiting a remote but prosperous village in Aceh, since there are still many rumah panggung (houses built on stilts), combined with concrete built houses, where in fact Lamdom is still within Banda Aceh municipality that is currently developing in various sectors.
The villagers who own chickens put the cages in their backyard approximately 3 meters away from their main houses. Since all houses have large yards, people usually free range their chickens. Pak Keuchik, (the term for village head in Acehnese) H. Usman Basyah, told the condition of Lamdom gampong (the term for village in Acehnese). There are around 40 households raising poultry including chicken and duck. “Previously our village was not well known in Banda Aceh. When people heard about Lamdom, they thought it is a remote village out of nowhere”, he said. He continued his story, “There is a blessing that bird flu was found here, our village became more famous, gets more attention, and now it represents Aceh Province to participate in the national competition of “Gerakan Sayang Ibu or Love Mother Movement” “, he said smiling. Since the first case of bird flu was found in his village, many agencies had come to the village to conduct education sessions. “Some agencies gave education in Meunasah (mushalla/place for prayer in Acehnese). That is why we understand that it is better if chickens are caged; bird flu is transmitted through saliva, liquid discharge and feces of chicken. ” Pak Keuchik explained. He now knows more about AI control. “We in the gampong previously did not clean chicken cages by washing them with disinfectant, but now after getting the education we realize that it is very important to do so”, he said.
Besides gaining knowledge on how to control AI, the people still showed their gratitude to God for making their village free from bird flu. It shows that as Moslems, they realizes that despite of human efforts, God has the last decision. Listen to what Saiful said, a-38 year old father of 2 children who has been living in Lamdom all his life. With his thick Acehnese language he answered, “Alhamdulillah hana le Tuhan brie jinoe (Thanks God, now God does not give bird flu anymore)”. Saiful was grateful because bird flu does not occur in his village anymore. Previously Saiful was afraid of bird flu. He was afraid to eat chicken meat, afraid that it is infected by bird flu. But after gaining some knowledge through education sessions, now he knows that properly cooked chicken meat is safe for consumption.
Saiful felt psychological impact due to bird flu in his village. There were many false and confusing news coverage. Even there was a gossip circulating in one of the media outlets that a villager died of bird flu. It is not true. As the result there were various opinions from the people outside Lamdom Village. “Ideally newspaper can convey information on bird flu proportionally to create safe feeling”, he said. But now he himself is ready to face bird flu issue with his new gained knowledge.
There are still many misperceptions about bird flu in the community. It means that the government had not given enough information to the people. Sustainable education sessions are needed for the people to understand. Just like Zulfahmi, a young man with high curiosity, who thought that the provided information was not adequate, which led him to find out more from different sources such in posters, brochures and magazines. From the reading materials he got accurate information consistent with the development in the field. Fortunately, however, up to now there is no bird flu in human reported in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.
In early 2008, the villagers found sudden death in chickens again. But this time they were ready, they immediately reported to the Livestock Service to conduct immediate examination. The people did not panic anymore like the first time. After the carcasses were examined, they were found positive of AI. With a quick response, there were only 15 birds were culled, burned and buried immediately. This time there was no commotion, everything happened normally or in other words, it could be controlled technically and psychologically. Chicken houses were disinfected and the remaining chickens were temporarily contained. Since most of the chicken owners were backyard farmers, their loss could be minimized.
Lamdom, the village where we started fighting bird flu, became a lesson learned for everyone both in Aceh and all over Indonesia. There were some lessons learned on the responses from the people, the government and other private sectors to enable bird flu alert to be implemented properly anywhere. [*]
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