Indonesia is winning its fight against bird flu and expects to be free of the killer virus by 2008, the country’s agriculture minister said today.

Indonesia and Malaysia took their anti-bird flu campaigns to the streets today, testing thousands of chickens, ducks and doves for the H5N1 virus that has killed 87 people across Asia.

Fears that several people in China and Thailand had been infected with bird flu appear to have been proved groundless, but the region’s anxiety mounted as officials warned of more human infections unless the spread of the disease was curbed.

TWO children have been hospitalised in Indonesia with suspected bird flu, and the government put the country on high alert yesterday as it struggled to contain a virus that has killed four people.

Indonesia today became the first known country to destroy pigs in its efforts to contain the rapid spread of bird flu, which has killed at least 57 people across Asia and devastated poultry stocks.