The World Bank chided Indonesia on Thursday for planning to decrease its budget for combating bird flu even though experts are predicting a shortfall of more than $150m in the funding deemed necessary to fight the virus in the world’s hardest-hit nation.

Indonesia has recorded a third of the 141 fatalities from the H5N1 virus reported worldwide in the past three years. It has also been criticised by international experts for failing to conduct mass culls to eradicate the disease in poultry – the virus is now endemic in birds across most of the country.