Indonesia, the world's latest hot spot for bird flu, appears to be taking steps at last to beat back the spread of the disease in its poultry flocks.
In just six months, teams of veterinarians marching along dusty, twisting paths in the remote villages of this sprawling country have uncovered more flu outbreaks among birds than experts had even imagined.
"It's still just the tip of the iceberg," said Jeff Mariner, an animal health expert from Tufts University who has been working with the effort since it began in January.
This new but still limited cooperation through a pilot project has somewhat heartened world health officials, who have watched with dread as Indonesia's human bird flu cases quietly mounted while the government did little.
With 42 deaths since last July, Indonesia is now tied with Vietnam as the world's hardest-hit country in human deaths from the H5N1 bird flu virus. But there have been no deaths from the disease in Vietnam since last year.
Indonesia's new effort to gain control of the disease has dozens of veterinarians and other health workers doing detective work -- going door-to-door to uncover hidden outbreaks in poultry flocks. They've found about 90 so far, and look for key tip-offs.
In Cangkurah, government veterinarians Wiwin Aprianti and Maria Dewi spot a telling clue: empty bird cages. Could it be a new bird flu outbreak? The two young women start knocking on doors, asking residents if they've heard of poultry dying off around here. Nothing.
FAMILIAR STORIES
In their tan uniforms, wearing backpacks loaded with protective gear and testing tools, they move on down the street, trying again at each house. They jot down details in their notebooks as they go.
*Government veterinarians are going door-to-door to try to uncover hidden outbreaks in poultry flocks.
* The teams carry out five-minute tests on sick or dead birds. If the H5N1 virus is found, a larger response team is deployed to help with slaughtering as well as vaccinations.
* The teams are part of a cooperative project between Jakarta and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Eventually, they hear a story -- one that is becoming all too familiar in the country that has reported the most bird flu cases this year.
"It started and infected other chickens -- south to north -- all through the village," says Zaenudin, who like many Indonesians uses one name. "During the daytime they looked healthy, but during the nighttime, the heads became very black."
A half-dozen neighbors chime in, saying the same thing happened to their birds last month. They all looked fine and then suddenly -- just keeled over dead. Now, nearly everyone's chickens are gone.
So far, Cangkurah has been lucky: No humans have fallen ill.
DETECTIVE SKILLS
When it comes to sleuthing out bird flu, Aprianti, 27, and Dewi, 31, have the skills of Sherlock Holmes.
They carry out five-minute tests on sick or dead birds. If the H5N1 virus is found, they notify a response team that helps with slaughtering and vaccinating.
Eventually, hundreds of similar detectives will form community-based surveillance and response teams. The project is a cooperative one between Indonesia's government and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The task is mind-boggling in an archipelago that roughly stretches the width of the US, with 220 million people and billions of backyard chickens. Health workers hope to reach a third of Indonesia's nearly 450 districts by next spring.
Indonesia grabbed world attention in May when seven out of eight infected members of a single family died. The WHO concluded that limited human-to-human transmission was likely to blame, but the virus did not spread beyond the blood family members -- the world's largest cluster.
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