Thousands Of Sparrows In Cirebon And Gianyar That Died Suddenly Are Still A Mystery, Which Is Definitely Not The Result Of Disease
JAKARTA - Not just hundreds, but thousands of sparrows died suddenly in Gianyar Bali and Cirebon, West Java. The exact cause is not yet known.
The death of the sparrows in the city of Cirebon is the first time this has happened. This is not the first time the bird's death has occurred in Bali.
It is suspected that the death of the sparrows was caused by infectious diseases such as bird flu. However, the assumption was broken referring to the results of laboratory tests.
Each local government has taken good action as a first step, namely sending samples of several dead birds for analysis in the veterinary laboratory (animal disease).
This step is very important to find out whether the dead birds were exposed to zoonotic diseases or other poultry diseases that spread very quickly. As is known, bird flu (avian influenza) is zoonotic, which includes infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals, in this case birds to humans, or vice versa.
Meanwhile, ND (New Castle Disease) or known as tetelo disease is a poultry disease that spreads very quickly and is very fatal for poultry but is not contagious to humans.
Based on the results of laboratory tests initiated by the local government, it is evident that the sparrows did not die from infectious diseases such as bird flu.
However, the cause of the death of the sparrow still leaves a question mark in the community. There are subsequent allegations, such as the cause of the death of the sparrows is the acid content of rainwater or the alleged use of pesticides that can poison birds.
It is also suspected that the sparrow died due to drastic changes in weather because the incident took place after heavy rain and strong winds, whereas previously the air temperature was very hot.
Zoological researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Dewi Malia Prawiradilaga said the truth of these allegations needed to be proven by research data.
"Therefore, further research is needed to scientifically uncover the causes of death of thousands of sparrows. One of the important studies to do is to examine the role of birds as bioindicators," said Dewi as quoted by Antara, Thursday, September 23.
Such research should be carried out by involving various fields of expertise in a synergistic and integrated manner such as ornithology (bird specialist), veterinary, climatology (weather and climate specialist), environmental chemistry, toxicology (expert poison) and other appropriate fields.