KUALA LUMPUR, February 10 (IslamOnline.net) - Chicken farmers and vendors have cried foul over the culling of their poultry in Indonesia, arguing that it was ‘immoral’ to kill chickens because of a "suspected" flu virus that has existed for generations and has never spread into Humans so far in the country.

Indonesians has abandoned chicken for fish and meat or other sea foods and vegetables with the outbreak of the bird flu virus across South East Asia and China, leaving the vendors and farmers into a deep economic crisis that is seemingly unending.

"The people are afraid though we read reports that Indonesians do not know about the bird flu in newspapers. I can tell you that things are not the same and sales have all but died!” screamed a disappointed vendor at a busy market place in Jakarta.

"You can ask any of the customers here if they are buying live chicken or freshly slaughtered ones. They will all tell you it's dangerous now to eat chicken," Ardianto, the vendor told IslamOnline.net.

Millions of chickens have been burnt alive, drowned or simply buried alive in villages and towns in Indonesia, causing an uproar among farmers who does not believe that the avian flu could kill humans on a large scale.

"It is a pity to see the ‘murder’ of chicken on that scale. Poor animals, they get sick every year, they die in thousands, hundreds of thousands or even in millions across Indonesia every time and yet, no humans die because of them," said a farmer who was visiting the market to check on the situation.

Sunanto Badrulzaman, a Javanese living in a farm village on the outskirt of the vast city of Jakarta told IOL that he was shocked at the extent of the panic among the officials and the public upon the news that chicken were dying in Indonesia.

"I grew up in farms, we always had thousands of chicks and sure they would die of flu and of the Newcastle disease, it’s a season thing but this year the flu has stretched and more chicks died," he said.

The only solution would have been to vaccinate the healthy chicks and to kill those that were already dying, he said, adding that there were no need to panic like they did in China and Vietnam or Thailand.

"The next step would have been to inform farmers and vendors to be careful and to monitor the chick round the clock. Any sign of flu outbreak could have been contained. Yet officials panicked under pressure from the World Health Organization (WHO)," he said.

The WHO urged the Indonesian government to take swift action in killing the birds, arguing that birds in any farm affected by the flu should be eliminated, no question whether they are healthy or not.

The Indonesian government was reluctant to announce the outbreak of the bird flu on its soil, arguing that the chickens were dying of common flu to birds.

It also said that as long as no humans contracted the flu from birds, it will not declare it had the bird flu.

However, it went ahead with drastic measures and urged farmers to destroy their poultry overnight since last week.

The result of the much publicized operations, which has saddened many people in the country due to the methods used to eliminate the birds, has caused mass panic among the consumers.

Sales of chickens have dropped in markets and farmers, vendors and other factories dealing with chicken products are suffering an unprecedented economic backlash that will also affect the shaky Indonesian economy in the short run.

The Indonesian government, unprepared for such a situation, does not even have enough cash for vaccination and is embroiled in a controversy upon its importation of vaccines from China, the country the worst hit by the avian flu.

An official from the Indonesian health department told IOL that the situation has been better since last week but that chickens were still dying due to lack of vaccines.

He said farmers were trying their best to salvage whatever they could, but the flu was to spread too rapidly and healthy chicks are soon going to be victims too if nothing is done.

He agreed though that the country had serious economic problem and could not help the farmers in dealing with the situation.

Indonesia reported one suspected bird flu victim, a little boy from a farm in a village in java who has since then recovered.

The official said that there was still no confirmation that the child was affected by the bird flu, hence he says his country was free of the flu.

An Indonesian customer told IOL on the internet that she was not worried enough about the flu.

"I just had a lunch at the KFC, and I had chicken, what else. There is no need to panic since I know what is it all about, unless there is something very awful that the WHO is not telling people,” Radizah said to IOL.

She believed that the flu will be contained, adding with confidence that Indonesia will not plunge in deeper problems due to the flu.

"I pity the vendors though, I go to the market and I see their situation. Something must be done to assist them, that is what I can plead to the authorities," Radizah said.