Indonesia's Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono urged the Agriculture Quarantine Agency (BARANTAN) to prevent the spread of flu A/H1N1 virus through traffic surveillance on the disease carrier channels, the national news agency Antara reported on Saturday.

"We can't be distracted. Increase our vigilance to protect people from this dangerous disease threat," said the minister in Bekasi of West Java.

He alerted that Indonesia was inevitable from the outbreak of the epidemic.

Anton admitted that new diseases had been emerging lately with high power level to kill, not only to animals but also against people, and the flu A/H1N1 was one of them.

The policy was one of the efforts to protect the domestic agriculture against the disease spread, said Anton.

He called a public awareness to increase their roles to guard and to protect Indonesian agriculture.

"People, farmers and business people, especially importers, should also carry the burden. This shouldn't be just the government's burden," he said.

He added that food security should be guarded and export of agricultural commodity should be protected.

He also said that the quarantine body should stimulate export growth by fulfilling technical conditions required by export destination countries.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2009)