The Denpasar Agriculture Quarantine Agency in Bali has foiled an alleged attempt to smuggle thousands of birds without health certificates to regions in Java Island on Monday evening.
I Putu Terunanegara, the quarantine agency head, said the birds were initially to be brought to Yogyakarta and Solo in Central Java.
However, since Denpasar is still dealing with avian influenza, every bird taken out from the area has to possess a health certificate.
“We have to perform strict monitoring, since birds and chicken are the carriers of bird flu,” Terunegara said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.
Officers from the Denpasar Quarantine Agency found thousands of birds inside a pickup truck at a parking lot in Gilimanuk Maneuver Port in Jembrana on Monday. The birds were kept inside 27 cardboard boxes with holes and 48 plastic baskets.
“They used a catering truck for a Minang restaurant to fool the quarantine center officers,” Terunagara said.
The birds included 450 of the species Horsfield’s bush lark, 340 yellow vented bulbul, 600 bar-winged prinia, 1,040 yellow-ringed white eye, 38 pied bush chat, 70 Mees’s white eye, 70 Padda, 70 Lonchura and 20 orange-headed thrush.
None of the birds are of protected species.
The officers also found that some of the birds had already died due to poor air circulation.
The two drivers of the catering truck were not arrested, as authorities allowed them to complete the documents as stipulated in Law No. 21/2019 on Animal, Fisheries and Plants Quarantine. (dpk)
