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The following is the English transcript of the press briefing on the round-up on the latest development of the chicken deaths incidents and the question-and-answer session given by the Secretary for the Environment and Food, Mrs Lily Yam, today (February 7) :
I would just give a very brief report of the situation yesterday and today. Concentrating on our retail markets first, on the suggestion of the trade and the advice of our expert group, a decision was made to declare tomorrow (Friday) a rest day.
So, yesterday and today, the chicken stalls in the retail markets are fast clearing out their stock so that the markets can be cleansed and disinfected and they can resume business on Saturday in time to catch the higher volume of business over the weekend and over the Lunar New Year period.
Yesterday morning there were reports of chicken deaths in four markets. These four markets are Java Street, Bowrington Road, Tsing Yi and Choi Wan, and in all four markets a total of five chicken stalls were affected. And the chickens in these stalls were slaughtered and destroyed. Not counting the two stalls in Tsing Yi Market we destroyed a total of some 500 chickens.
There were reports that more chickens in our retail markets were contaminated this morning. It's not true. The chickens in the Tsing Yi Market were destroyed yesterday and today. So today's operation is a continuation of yesterday. And from yesterday afternoon onwards, we received no further reports of unusual chicken deaths in our retail markets.
As far as our chicken farms are concerned, on Tuesday I said 22 farms had been placed under quarantine. They were all in the Kam Tin area. And in addition, one farm in Hung Shui Kiu and one in Lau Fau Shan were also placed under quarantine. I should stress that apart from (that was the position on Tuesday) three farms in the Kam Tin area that were proved to be infected, all other farms placed under quarantine on Tuesday we did so as a precautionary measure.
Yesterday, the quarantined farm in Hung Shui Kiu proved to be infected, so we destroyed some 4,000 chickens in that Hung Shui Kiu farm. At the same time, an additional farm, this one in Pak Sha, was also quarantined, again as a precautionary measure. So, total 25 farms were quarantined and four farms were found to be infected.
Yesterday and today, in routine inspections by officers of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), we did not find any unusual number of chicken deaths in our farms. So we have some reasons to believe that the virus that is affecting us this time is not spreading to other farms. But we will maintain close observation and AFCD officers would remain on full alert.
Now, to prepare for the reopening of our retail markets on Saturday, special additional precautionary measures will be taken to inspect chickens from local farms. First of all, all chickens from local farms will have to go through the (Cheung Sha Wan) Wholesale Market. At the Wholesale Market they would be placed at a special location and not mixed with other chickens until they pass the health test.
The health test consists of looking for dead birds among the local chickens that arrive at the Wholesale Market, and (also) drawing samples for blood tests. That would be done in a special location at the Wholesale Market. Only after they have passed these tests would the chickens be allowed to be delivered to the laans i.e. the wholesalers at the Wholesale Market.
In addition, each lorry can only hold chickens from one farm. They can't hold chickens from a number of farms. That is to avoid cross-contamination. Before the lorries arrive at the farms to pick up the chickens they all have to be cleansed and disinfected, together with the cages at the Wholesale Market.
And during the next few days when demand for chickens would be very high, AFCD officers would be stationed at the farms and (will) carry out an inspection of the chickens before they are loaded on to the trucks. And the trucks will be sealed. In addition, blood tests will continue to be carried out at the farms within five days when the chickens reach the retail outlets.
These arrangements would be introduced when the retail markets open. But we will continue to monitor our farms very closely tomorrow. If there are any new developments in our farms tomorrow, we will reassess the situation and decide accordingly.
Now I would like to say something about test results. This afternoon - let me repeat - this afternoon AFCD received a preliminary - again I underline preliminary report from Hong Kong University that the virus in the first farm affected proves to be H5N1. Further tests and analysis are being carried out. But it is not the H5N1 that affected us in 1997, and this one is very unlikely to affect human beings.
H5 is a virus affecting birds. H5N1 viruses are of many types. In fact, the most common one so far found in Hong Kong is H5N1. What we are most concerned about is H5N1-97. That was the one that took away six lives in 1997.
As I said yesterday, in January we picked up three samples of H5N1 in dead chickens. We carried out thousands of tests - blood tests, faecal sample tests, dead-bird tests - every day as part of our surveillance and our practice is not to release the finding of each test.
Unless there are signs, like an unusual number of chicken deaths or chickens appearing to be unhealthy that indicate that we may be having an outbreak, publicizing the result of each sample test would cause unnecessary concern and affect confidence in the supply of chickens and in the consumption of chickens. So we will continue to adopt the current practice.
Experts say that bird viruses are prevalent in this part of the world and the loading is getting increasingly heavy. They also say that we have a first-class surveillance system. Nonetheless, we will take another look at the system and see whether it can be strengthened in any way. I have already described how we are going to strengthen it with regard to the inspection of local chickens. We will also examine the implementation of the system to see whether there have been any omissions. And of course we will try to establish the causes of the current outbreak.
Government can only do that much. We need the full co-operation of the trade. And I hope, once again, to remind them that any let-up, any negligence on their part, would cause irreparable damage. Not just to Hong Kong as a whole, we pay a heavy price but at the end of the day they would also suffer. Confidence in the trade has to be restored every time there is an outbreak and the precautionary measures invariably mean disruptions in their business.
And it is on this note that I would end this briefing. We will do our best. But at the end of the day, we need the full co-operation of the trade concerned.
Reporter : Mrs Yam, you gave a couple of anecdotal samples of perhaps a lack of co-operation between the farmers and the stall-owners. Can you just outline these again briefly, in English this time, some of the problems that you are finding?
SEF: Yes. In fact you put it very well - they were no more than anecdotal. I have heard such allegations that a very small number of stallholders, instead of destroying all their chickens to prepare for the rest day, they remove the chickens from the market and put them back after the rest-day. That really defeats the whole purpose of having a rest-day, which is to break the life cycle of any virus that may be lodged in the market. And there were also allegations that different kinds of birds were found on one farm. You know, that kind of thing. And that is not allowed under our licensing condition. But as I said, these were no more than reports. But we took a sufficiently serious view for officers of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to go round and ensure that birds are not removed from the markets in advance of the rest-day. We have almost 80 markets under the department, some 800 chicken stalls, and the function of the department is not to act as policemen. So we do need the co-operation of the trade and I hope that they would maintain their vigilance, not just during the next few days but it has got to be constant.
Reporter : And is centralized slaughter a warning to the vendors and the chicken stall-owners and the farmers, that this could be an eventuality if they don't maintain these practices?
SEF: It is not a warning at all. I was asked about longer-term possibilities. It is just a possibility for discussion by the community. We do need some kind of community consensus on this.
(Please refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
End/Thursday, February 7, 2002
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