On the heels of a rabies outbreak in Bali, officials on the tourist island are now wrestling with the shadow of avian influenza. Made Badra, the head of Badung district animal husbandry, marine and fisheries agency, said on Tuesday that one person was being treated for suspected bird flu infection, while 133 chickens from the Jagapati Abiansemal village had been culled after one out of five of the sick birds, selected randomly from the group, tested positive for the H5N1 virus last week.

Indonesia remains the world’s most-affected country from the virus, with 113 human deaths from 139 cases as of Jan. 19, according to the World Health Organization. Indonesia’s failure to reign in the disease — which is endemic among domestic birds in the vast majority of Indonesia’s 33 provinces — has prompted critics to warn a global pandemic could originate from Indonesia.

“We conducted the culling [last] Thursday, Friday and [Tuesday] morning and eliminated 133 chickens,” he said, adding that local residents had voluntarily given up their birds to be destroyed. Badra also said that a local resident, Putu Pramayoga, was experiencing bird-flu like symptoms after coming in contact with sick poultry. He was given antibiotics and antiviral drug Tamiflu and his condition was said to be improving.

“This morning I have checked. The fever and the cough have gone,” he said, adding that Putu’s tissue samples had been sent to Sanglah hospital in Denpasar to find out whether or not he was infected with bird flu. “There is no rapid test for humans. Laboratory tests take time, so we cannot confirm whether or not Putu was infected by the H5N1 virus.”

Badra said that in an effort to curb the spread of the virus, the agency would conduct a drive to disinfect chicken farms and slaughter houses. “We will also reactivate surveillance in nearby villages to monitor the transportation of chickens,” he said. Badra said awareness of bird flu in Badung had improved after a small outbreak of the virus struck the district in 2007, killing two people.

The state-run Antara news agency reported on Tuesday that 11.5 percent of Lampung Province’s 2,330 villages, a total of 268 villages, had tested positive for bird flu among birds in January. Sunaryo Kasman, section head of animal and veterinary health for Lampung’s husbandry and animal health agency was quoted as saying that the survey conducted by the agency in January 2009 indicated that the virus had spread to eleven sub-districts.

Sunaryo also said that in 2004, the H5N1 virus killed more than 1.8 million birds in Lampung, the highest rate in the province, while in 2008 the number of dead birds fell to 25,282. The decreasing figure was the result of increasing awareness in the community and faster response times when bird flu cases were detected, he said.