Press Releases

FEHD to advance rest day to break bird flu virus cycle

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will advance the "Rest Day" at all poultry retail outlets from December 27 to December 24 to ensure that markets are kept clean after the voluminous trading of live chickens before Winter Solstice which falls on December 22.

The "Rest Day", which had proved effective in the past, would reduce the overall virus load and help break the cycle of virus infection in all market stalls and fresh provision shops, a spokesman for the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau (HWFB) said this evening (December 20).

To tie in with the above measure, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has also decided to advance the "Rest Day" at the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market to December 23 and 24.

The spokesman pointed out that this series of latest actions were taken to minimise the risk of occurrence of avian influenza during the winter "high-risk" season.

"We are applying our risk management strategy vigorously through surveillances to breaking the virus cycle to ensure our public continues to enjoy live poultry supply during the festive seasons," the spokesman said.

Earlier today, the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, also called on the poultry stallholders not to overstock chickens to help reduce the risk of avian influenza.

Noting that avian influenza was already endemic and sporadic cases were expected, Dr Yeoh said this was the season where risk was the greatest as there was a large number of chickens coming in from the Mainland and local farms to markets and fresh provisions shops with the approach of the Winter Solstice, and later the Chinese New Year.

"The number of dead chickens found in our markets should be viewed in the context of the increased number of chickens traded," he said.

Statistics showed the supply of live chickens at the wholesale market in these three days amounted to 141,000, 163,400 and 154,000 on December 18, 19 and 20 respectively.

Dr Yeoh noted more intensive surveillance carried out by FEHD staff had also contributed to the detection of more instances of isolated cases of dead chickens.

He urged the public not to be unduly worried because the situation was under control.

"We cannot guarantee that it would not get worse but certainly we are doing our best to make sure that we keep everything under control," he said.

Turning to market operation, the HWFB spokesman noted co-ordinated efforts had been carried out by concerned Government departments to minimise the risk of a major outbreak.

The spokesman noted that both FEHD and AFCD had stepped up their surveillance programme and cleansing operations following recent detections of dead birds in the markets.

FEHD was conducting inspections every two-hour at high-risk markets where dead chickens were found and showed presence of the H5 avian influenza virus. It would also monitor closely the health of the chickens in the retail market and take determined action to contain any outbreak of avian flu.

AFCD had geared up its inspection of local chicken farms and the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market.

Although there had been no unusual mortality in these places, chicken farmers were advised to implement biosecurity measures in their farms while transporters were reminded to only use cages properly cleansed at the wholesale market.

Meanwhile, the death of the waterfowl at Penfold Park is still being investigated and genetic analysis of the samples is being conducted.

Friday, December 20, 2002