Hong Kong Suspends Trading of Live Poultry After Bird Flu Virus Detected
07 Jun 2016 --- Hong Kong has suspended the sale of live poultry after a sample from a street market tested positive for H797 bird flu virus.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) detected the virus in faecal droppings in two poultry stalls in Yan Oi Market in Tuen Mun.
The check was carried on May 16 and the virus was detected on June 4.
The two stalls, where the virus was detected, sell live chickens as well as pigeons.
The FEHD is now looking to find the source of the virus.
"The affected stall sells live poultry, including live chickens and pigeons. The FEHD, upon receiving the test result, has immediately conducted thorough cleansing and disinfection at the two stalls and is tracing the source of the poultry," a spokesman for the FEHD said.
Until the source is found, trading of live poultry, including importing it into Hong Kong, has been suspended.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) will now carry out inspections of all local chicken farms and collect samples in order to ascertain that none of the local farms or chickens have been infected with the virus.
The AFCD will also notify the World Organisation for Animal Health of the incident.
The FEHD said it had introduced a number of measure aimed at virus prevention at public market stalls.
These include more inspections, ensuring that stall holders slaughter all live poultry in the stalls before 8pm every evening, and ruling that all public areas at the markets are cleansed three times a day by the market cleaning contractors.
Around 18 months ago, Hong Kong suspended live chicken sales after a sample batch imported into the city tested positive for the H797 virus, which resulted in nearly 80,000 chickens being slaughtered.
All content and features on this website are copyrighted with all rights reserved. The full details can be found in our privacy statement
