Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government is being slammed for keeping the public in the dark about the spread of bird flu despite being aware of it since last November.

Researchers, poultry farmers and parliamentarians said the damage could have been curtailed if the government had admitted much earlier that the avian influenza was killing millions of chicken.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Muhaimin Yahya said: 'I'm worried that the government's slow response to the outbreak will severely affect our economy. Over the next two days, the government should give a better explanation to the public.' Information now becoming public suggests that many independent and government researchers had confirmed the existence of the virus as early as November.

But it seems the government was under pressure from lobby groups to stay silent. Industry sources said government officials and top representatives of the poultry industry agreed in December to keep the bird flu outbreak under wraps for a while.

But on Saturday, The Association of Indonesian Veterinarians in Surabaya, East Java, disclosed that about 10 million chicken have died from avian influenza since October.

This finding led to a hastily called press briefing the next day in which the government confirmed that the bird flu has spread here since August, killing 4.7 million hens from 400 farms so far, although it has yet to spread to humans.

East Java, West Java, Banten Yogyakarta, Lampung, Bali and some provinces in Kalimantan have been hardest hit by the outbreak.

Mr Samhadi of the Indonesian Poultry Information Centre said the number of chickens to have died from the outbreak could be a lot more than what the government has revealed.

"I think at least 15 per cent of the country's chicken production had been affected, and most of these are laying hens which have a longer life span of two and half years than broiler chickens, making them susceptible to diseases," he told The Straits Times.

"Based on our estimates in mid-December alone, at least 10 million have died from the disease. By now, it's probably around 12 million."