JAKARTA, 28 August 2004 - Indonesia has banned imports of chicken from Malaysia after the neighbouring country announced an outbreak of deadly bird flu, a report said Saturday. The agriculture ministry has issued a circular urging firms not to import chicken meat, chicks, eggs and chicken feathers from Malaysia, a government official was quoted as saying by the Koran Tempo daily.
Malaysia announced last week that it had detected the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza in a village in Kelantan state, and beefed up security on the nearby Thai border. Malaysian authorities say the outbreak was restricted to one village and that the two affected birds were recently taken to Thailand for a cock fight. Indonesia has also banned chicken imports from Thailand and Vietnam and last month launched a major vaccination program after reports that bird flu lingered in some districts.
No Indonesians are known to have been infected by the virus. The disease killed eight people in Thailand and 19 in Vietnam earlier this year and the World Health Organisation fears the virus could mutate into a highly contagious form that triggers the next global human flu pandemic.

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