bird flu and sars coming again.
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Hong Kong Detects Avian Flu, Bans Live Birds Imports (Update1)
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By Mark Lee
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong will ban imports of live poultry after chickens from a local farm were found to have died from the H5 bird-flu virus.
The government will destroy 80,000 birds from the farm and the adjacent area to combat the bird flu, York Chow, Secretary for Food and Health, said today at a briefing in the city broadcast on local television. More birds will be culled if further outbreaks are discovered, he said.
Chow today raised the bird-flu alert level, and warned citizens to take care to prevent the disease.
In June, Hong Kong ordered the slaughter of chickens in local markets and offered to buy back licenses from poultry farmers and traders after the H5N1 bird flu was discovered. Hong Kong also halted live chicken sales. That ban was lifted in July.
Hong Kong culled its entire chicken population in 1997 after a bird flu outbreak.
Today’s 21-day imports ban is procedural, as Hong Kong is required to restrict movements of birds across its borders when an outbreak is discovered, Chow said.
About 72 percent of live chicken traders in Hong Kong chose to surrender their licenses in return for compensation as the government aimed to limit the trade to combat bird-flu, according to a Sept. 25 statement. Demands for compensation totaling HK$660 million ($85 million) were filed, the government said.
The bird-flu virus may trigger a possible flu pandemic in humans, the World Health Organization said in 2003.
At least 387 people in 15 countries have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian-flu virus since 2003, according to the Geneva-based WHO. Almost two of every three cases were fatal.
China this week shipped its first batch of cooked poultry products to the European Union in six years after the EU lifted a ban on the Asian country’s animal products, the Ministry of Commerce said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Lee in Hong Kong at [email protected]
Last Updated: December 9, 2008 05:06 EST
00000000000000000000000000000000000
Hong Kong Detects Avian Flu, Bans Live Birds Imports (Update1)
Email | Print | A A A
By Mark Lee
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong will ban imports of live poultry after chickens from a local farm were found to have died from the H5 bird-flu virus.
The government will destroy 80,000 birds from the farm and the adjacent area to combat the bird flu, York Chow, Secretary for Food and Health, said today at a briefing in the city broadcast on local television. More birds will be culled if further outbreaks are discovered, he said.
Chow today raised the bird-flu alert level, and warned citizens to take care to prevent the disease.
In June, Hong Kong ordered the slaughter of chickens in local markets and offered to buy back licenses from poultry farmers and traders after the H5N1 bird flu was discovered. Hong Kong also halted live chicken sales. That ban was lifted in July.
Hong Kong culled its entire chicken population in 1997 after a bird flu outbreak.
Today’s 21-day imports ban is procedural, as Hong Kong is required to restrict movements of birds across its borders when an outbreak is discovered, Chow said.
About 72 percent of live chicken traders in Hong Kong chose to surrender their licenses in return for compensation as the government aimed to limit the trade to combat bird-flu, according to a Sept. 25 statement. Demands for compensation totaling HK$660 million ($85 million) were filed, the government said.
The bird-flu virus may trigger a possible flu pandemic in humans, the World Health Organization said in 2003.
At least 387 people in 15 countries have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian-flu virus since 2003, according to the Geneva-based WHO. Almost two of every three cases were fatal.
China this week shipped its first batch of cooked poultry products to the European Union in six years after the EU lifted a ban on the Asian country’s animal products, the Ministry of Commerce said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Lee in Hong Kong at [email protected]
Last Updated: December 9, 2008 05:06 EST
