Jakarta: A health ministry representative said that an Indonesian man from Riau region on Sumatra Island has died of bird flu.

The recent death takes the country’s death toll from the bird flu ailment to 91.

Lili Sulistyowati, health ministry spokeswoman said that it was not clear if the 31-year-old man who passed away on Tuesday had been in contact with ailing fowl, which is the most usual way of getting the infection.

Another representative at the government department’s bird flu centre told that the man, who had been suffering from coughing, fever and breathing troubles, expired while being shifted from a local hospital in Duri region to a hospital in Pekanbaru.

Joko Suyono at the bird flu centre said, “It is not clear about his contact with sick fowl, but our investigation team has been there.”

Bird flu is common in bird populations in the majority parts of Indonesia, where people often keep backyard chickens for meat and eggs or to make extra income.

According to World Health Organisation facts, there have been 206 deaths internationally including the latest casualty. Indonesia has had 133 confirmed human cases of the disease.