Indonesian authorities have found 17 suspected bird flu cases in the West Javanese town of Garut, raising fears that a cluster case has occurred, an evening newspaper reported Tuesday.

Three sufferers have been tested positive of bird flu by local laboratory and two of them died last week as the government began to cull all chickens within the radius of 1 km from any case found in Garut, some 200 km southeast of Jakarta. Health officials have been deployed to the area to distribute bird flu medicine and take blood samples form villagers, reported Sinar Harapan newspaper.

I Nyoman Kandun, a senior official with the Ministry of Health, said cases of chicken died allegedly from bird flu had been found in all villages in Garut over the last three months, prompting authorities to order mass cull in the area.

At least 2,505 chickens were culled during the government operations.

The government promised a compensation payment of 12,500 rupiah (US$1.37) for any chicken killed in the cull program.

Cikelet district was the worst hit area in which nine villages have reported bird flu case in human.

The latest casualties in Garut have raised bird flu death in the country to 46, considered to be the highest in the world.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)