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The Government is proceeding with an earlier plan to reduce the local chicken population and will start capping the total licensing capacity for chicken farms at two million in May, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (March 6).
A department spokesman said that reducing the local chicken population could lower the risk of an avian influenza outbreak and promptly control its spread if an outbreak occurred.
At a meeting this morning the department briefed representatives of local chicken farmers on the plan and the temporary suspension of importation of day-old chicks to Hong Kong from the Mainland.
In 2005, the Government announced a comprehensive plan of action to tackle the global problem of avian influenza and one measure was lowering the maximum licensing capacity in local chicken farms to 2 million. The whole plan was endorsed by the Executive Council and reported to the Legislative Council in July 2005.
A voluntary surrender scheme for live poultry farmers was launched in August 2005. A total of $269 million was set aside for ex-gratia payments to poultry farmers who choose to surrender their licences and cease operation permanently.
"The two million ceiling for local chicken farms, originally scheduled for implementation last month (February) is postponed to May to enable the farmers to deplete their existing stock with the likelihood of more farms surrendering their licences after the Chinese New Year," the spokesman said.
"The Guangdong human avian influenza case further increased the risk of avian influenza and a stoppage of day-old chicks was immediately introduced as a precautionary response measure. Implementation of the ceiling should not be postponed further."
The department has received 34 applications from local chicken farms to surrender their licences and has revoked eight licences upon completion of the vetting process, leaving 139 farms still in operation with total stock of 2.8 million chickens.
The spokesman said the proposal to ban import of day-old chicks was formulated to facilitate chicken farms to reduce their stock in an orderly manner.
In line with the reduction plan, the AFCD will advise chicken farm licence holders in early May of the permitted maximum licensing capacity of their farms which will take effect at the end of May.
"Farmers told the department at today's meeting that the ban instituted last night might already have the effect of bringing the overall chicken population down to an acceptable level and of achieving the two million target by May," he said.
"The department has agreed to review the situation in two weeks' time."
The department has stepped up surveillance of local chicken farms to ensure all the required bio-security measures have been properly maintained. It is also tightly monitoring precautionary measures at the poultry wholesale market against avian influenza, including frequent cleaning and disinfection.
If the local chicken farms supply 30,000 chickens to the market per day, the current stock could last for three months, the spokesman added.
Ends/Monday, March 6, 2006
Issued at HKT 21:14
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