Abstract

Avian Influenza (AI) has been spread rapidly in almost all the provinces of Indonesia by the end of 2007, and it has become endemic. Avian Influenza viruses can be infecting to human from direct or indirect contact with the infected or dead poultry, and a visit to the wet poultry market in the neighborhood. Seroprevalence studies can be used to identify the clinical key, epidemiological studies, and the spread of AI viruses in humans. The aim of present study was to investigate the seroprevalence of Avian Influenza (AI) virus, subtype H5 among poultry workers at the central traditional market in industrial. To meet the mentioned demand, 26 blood samples were collected from the poultry workers via the median cubital vein. The antibody titer was examined using Hemagglutination Inhibition (HI) assay using H5 antigen from duck licensed under A/Dk/Indonesia/AU-78/12 (H5N1) and three kinds of red blood cells taken from horse, chicken and guinea pig. The serum samples were added with Receptor Destroying Enzyme (RDE) with a ratio of 3:1 (v/v) for an overnight, and pretreated with 10% of red blood cells before the HI assay was conducted. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the percentage of seroprevalence of Avian Influenza (AI) virus, subtype H5 among poultry workers at central traditional market was 0%. Thirteen samples showed a negative result of the HI test. All of the workers’ blood serum obtained less than 24 antibody titer from the HI test. As the results showed, the research on the poultry workers in the traditional market was carried out, and it obtained negative results; all the workers were not infected with the Avian Influenza virus. In other words, Avian Influenza is not meaningful in poultry farm workers in Sidoarjo suburb traditional farms.