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Bird Flu Alarm: HK to Kill Poultry, Halt Imports
Hong Kong said on Friday it would slaughter about 1.2 million chickens and other poultry in the territory and halt imports from the Chinese mainland to stop the spread of a bird flu outbreak.
It is the second time in less than four years that Hong Kong has killed all its poultry. In 1997, the government slaughtered 1.4 million birds when a different avian flu virus, which killed six people, swept the territory on the south China coast.
Secretary for the Environment and Food, Lily Yam, told a news conference all poultry in local food markets would be killed by Sunday and at farms throughout the territory within two weeks.
Yam also said the government had asked the mainland to halt exports of live birds to the territory. Hong Kong consumes around 100,000 fresh chickens a day, of which more than 70 percent come from the hinterland.
Yam stressed the virus would not affect humans, and said the latest avian flu outbreak was different from the deadly strain that killed six people and affected a dozen others in late 1997 and early 1998.
The government had already slaughtered some 6,600 chickens on Wednesday after discovering the strain had killed a large number of birds at three local markets earlier this week.
But it has since discovered more chickens dying of the virus. The source of the strain has yet to be traced.
Yam said the government had decided to take the drastic step in light of the rapid spread of the disease. Ten markets had been found to be infected with the virus.
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