Press Releases
Response level for avian influenza down to alert level
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, today (April 15) announced
that on the advice of the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Conservation and the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene, he had
decided to scale down the response level for avian influenza from "serious"
to "alert".
The Government had raised the response level to "serious" after the
detection of the H5 avian influenza virus among chickens in a Yuen Long farm
on December 9, 2008.
The Food and Health Bureau later set up an investigation group on
epidemiological study which started with an in-depth examination of the
biosecurity of the index farm. The investigation group took a thorough look
at the farm's measures to prevent avian influenza as well as the management
and operation of the farm, with the aim of identifying the possible channel
for the introduction of the virus to the farm.
In its report released in March this year, the investigation group suggested
that the index farm and other chicken farms improve their biosecurity
measures. The index farm then adopted a series of improvement measures, and
the sentinel chickens there passed the swab and blood sampling tests for H5
avian influenza virus. Hence, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation
Department lifted the ban on the index farm last week.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department also strictly implemented the
ban on overnight stocking of live poultry in retail outlets. All live
chickens at retail outlets are slaughtered before 8pm every day. The ban has
been operating smoothly since it was introduced in July last year.
The relevant government departments will continue to stringently carry out
measures to prevent and monitor avian influenza at various levels, including
chicken farms, import, wholesale and retail levels. Tests of samples
collected from chickens at farms, the wholesale market and retail outlets
since December 10 last year have all been negative for the H5 virus.
"The Government has decided to scale down the response level after taking
into account the above factors and the prevailing risk of avian influenza,"
Dr Chow said.
Dr Chow appealed to the public to remain vigilant and pay attention to
personal and environmental hygiene to safeguard against avian influenza.
Ends/Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:33
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