Bali ducks positive for bird flu, hundreds culled

DENPASAR, Indonesia, Apr 26 (Reuters) Hundreds of ducks have been culled on Indonesia's Bali island after samples tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, a senior veterinarian said today.

The birds were culled in Gianyar regency on the popular tourist island and came from a farm and its surrounding areas.

''We burned 432 ducks yesterday, 392 of them came from that farm while the rest were owned by surrounding residents,'' Dewa Nyoman Raka Jaya, head of Gianyar's animal husbandry office, said by phone from the central Bali town.

''We assumed that all of them had the bird flu virus because all of the samples were positive.'' ''Today, we are chasing chickens around the farm. We don't know how many but we will burn them tonight,'' Jaya said.

Indonesia has the second highest bird flu human death toll of any country. But the government has resisted mass culling of birds, citing the expense and impracticality in a country where keeping a few chickens or ducks in the backyards is common.

Culling at selective farms and their immediate surroundings has been the preferred method.

In Indonesia, the H5N1 virus has been reported in birds in most of the country's 33 provinces, and there have been previous cullings in Bali. No human cases have been reported on the island.

The World Health Organisation has confirmed 24 human deaths in Indonesia from the virus from a total 32 confirmed cases, the majority in and around the capital Jakarta.

A sweeping door-to-door campaign to try to control the disease in the capital, home to 12 million people, only got underway at the end of February.

REUTERS DKS VV1520