JAKARTA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia will produce about 10 million doses avian influenza vaccine for ducks in February, following the death of hundreds thousands of the animals in Java island in recent months, a minister said here on Thursday.
Agriculture Minister Suswono Arsyaf said that four big firms would produce the vaccine and it would be distributed for soon to poultry raisers.
"At this February, the vaccine can be produce with mass scale. Hopefully, some 10 million doses can be produced in February," he said after a coordinating meeting with coordinating minister for economy.
Indonesia has found a new strain of H5N1 virus, which is more virulent.
The government has banned importation of poultry from other countries and isolated the spread of the virus inside main Java islands.
Indonesia has been investigating the cause of creation of the new clad, which is very different from the clade of H5N1 virus found in recent months.
The agriculture ministry said that some others possibilities of the cause of the emerge of the news strain are drift mutation or genetic shift from the previous viruses.
Indonesia has been hit hardest by bird flu since 2003, killing 160 people out of 192 cases since 2005, according to health ministry.
But, so far the new strain of H5N1 virus on ducks has not caused human fatality, the ministry has said.
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