Indonesian officials killed 18 pigs and some poultry infected by bird flu in a village near the home town of the country?s first victims, three members of a family who died this month, yesterday. The number of pigs slaughtered in Babat village close to Tangerang, a satellite city of Jakarta located 32 km (20 miles) from the Indonesian capital, was far lower than an earlier plan to kill around 200 infected pigs. Officials included dozens of chickens and ducks.

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono told a Jakarta-based radio the original plan would have hurt the local economy. However, his spokesman Hari Priyono said the ministry had decided to slaughter in stages.

?We suspect around 200 pigs here are infected. But today, we only found 18 which are truly positive after further testings. So, at this event we only slayed that many?, he said. ?In days to come, whenever we find a positive one here, we will slaughter it straight away?, said Priyono, adding that movement of livestock in and out of the area had been banned.

Local media reported farmers had moved out many of their livestock after hearing of the slaughter plan although the government has vowed to compensate according to market price. Before the slaying, officials, wearing jumpsuits, gloves and masks, sedated the pigs though the strongest ones had to be electrocuted. They later burned and buried them in an open field.

Yesterday, Apriyantono also reiterated that there was no concrete evidence of contact between the victims and the farm animals and that laboratory tests showed the strain was not a new mutation allowing the disease to be passed between humans. However, he urged pig farmers to turn to raising cows.

Health experts are still puzzled by the deaths in the world?s fourth most populous country, but the authorities have prepared 44 hospitals across Indonesia for the treatment of further possible victims.

In a sprawling archipelago dotted with small farms, and where even many urban families keep chickens, pinpointing the source of the virus is proving difficult. Avian influenza, which arrived in Asia in late 2003, has so far killed more than 50 people in the region, including Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. In Indonesia, the virus has spread to 21 provinces out of 33 over the past two years.

It had already jumped species in Indonesia, having been discovered in pigs on densely populated Java island in May. Pigs can carry human flu viruses, which can combine with avian viruses, swap genes and create virulent new strains. Pig farming is not widespread in Indonesia, the world?s most populous Muslim country since Islam regards pigs as unclean.