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Live chicken import to be suspended in case of H5N1
Hong Kong SAR government will suspend the import of live chicken from Guangdong if the suspected Shenzhen H5N1 infection was confirmed, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow said yesterday.
The suspension, to last three weeks according to law, will be among the contingency measures to be implemented in Hong Kong after the 31-year-old truck driver surnamed Jiang in Shenzhen was suspected of contracting H5N1 virus. Jiang's case is pending confirmation from Beijing which will come in two to three days.
Legislators came out in support of the government's proposal to temporarily ban live chicken import from the mainland if the infection was confirmed.
While agreeing with the ban, the lawmakers called on the government to work hard to trace the origin of the virus and take stringent steps to prevent avian flu from spreading to Hong Kong.
Infection channels
Professor Paul Chan from the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Department of Microbiology said suspending live chicken import from the mainland depended on the channel of infection.
"If there happens to be only a few dead chickens at home, then there is no need to stop importing live chicken. But if the infections are suspected on the chicken farms, we should be very careful to see if Hong Kong chicken farms will get infected by the imported chickens," he told TVB.
Commenting on the live chicken suspension, medical constituency legislator Kwok Ka-ki asked the Hong Kong SAR government to take the matter seriously, given the fact that Hong Kong is geographically so close to Shenzhen.
"It is a reasonable measure to ban import of live chicken once it is confirmed a case of human infection, but it will be adequate to ban live chicken only because other poultries and birds are less risky," he added.
Legislator Wong Yung-kan, who represents the agriculture and fisheries constituency, was not opposed to a ban since the SAR government had earlier banned live chicken from some parts of the mainland. But he added once the ban was lifted, the relaxation should also apply to the import of day-old chicks.
"Since day-old chicks take months to grow up, they should be allowed to enter Hong Kong if they are certified safe by the mainland health authorities. Otherwise it will be very unfair to the chicken farmers," he said.
As to the contingency plans, Kwok said the Department of Health and Hospital Authority should step up the control measures such as checking the health declaration cards of cross-boundary passengers. In case of any suspected cases, the patients should be thoroughly checked or separated if necessary.
Epidemiologist Lo Wing-lok also said the government should ban chicken imports from the infected areas.
But Chinese University microbiology assistant Professor Julian Tang pointed out that even after banning the imports of live poultry, wild birds could not be stopped from flying across the border.
University of Hong Kong microbiology Professor David Poon noted that the government had conducted checks on the poultry imported to the SAR and implemented enough measures to prevent the virus from spreading.
Intensive watch
Hospital Authority will launch a three-week intensive surveillance programme, asking the public hospitals to report to the authority about all the patients having pneumonia of unidentified etiology and about those who had travelled in the seven days before the onset of symptoms to areas with confirmed human cases of H5N1 in the past six months.
AFCD and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will also step up inspection of local poultry farms, wholesale and retail markets. The Customs and Excise Department has also decided to intensify surveillance to crack down on the smuggling of live poultry.
The Department of Health said it would maintain temperature screening for inbound travellers.
Shenzhen Disease Control and Prevention Centre received a report on Sunday that Jiang was admitted to a hospital in Lowu following severe pneumonia, and the test showed that he was positive to bird flu.
The second and third test also showed Jiang was positive, and he was moved to Donghu Hospital on Monday. Disease samples were delivered to Beijing for the confirmation test.
In Mong Kok Market run by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, a chicken vendor said he had not heard of the suspected human infection in Shenzhen. Refusing to elaborate, he said the reports didn't make any impact on the sales.
Local citizens were still buying live chicken. "We needn't worry too much," said a housewife. "In fact, we have only very few choices because we have also heard about meat and fish that are prone to diseases."
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