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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (October 17):
Question:
Recently, some members of the public have reflected to me that upon receipt of reports about the discovery of dead bird carcasses, the government department concerned often failed to remove the carcasses promptly and seldom conducted avian influenza virus tests on them. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
(a) the number of reports received in each of the past three years regarding the discovery of dead bird carcasses;
(b) the respective numbers of dead bird carcasses collected and samples of such carcasses tested in each of the past three years, as well as the results of such tests; and
(c) the reasons for not conducting tests on each of the dead bird carcass collected?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has started to collect dead bird carcasses since November 2005. Between November and December 2005, in 2006, and between January and September 2007, the number of telephone reports of dead bird found was about 1,600, 16,000 and 15,400 respectively. Some of them were duplicate reports and enquiries about following up of earlier reports.
(b) Relevant statistics are tabulated in Annex.
(c) The AFCD will adjust its testing strategies having regard to changes in the risk of avian influenza and the situation on the death of birds. For instance, more tests will be conducted during the high-risk period for avian influenza or at a time when massive death of birds is found, while less will be conducted during the low-risk period. Moreover, since avian influenza virus can only replicate in living cells and is susceptible to deactivation with the changes in temperature, humidity and pH value, as well as in an anisosmotic environment, which renders it difficult to survive in decayed carcasses, the AFCD would not conduct tests on decayed or weathered and dried carcasses of dead birds. For the above reasons, we did not conduct tests on all the dead bird carcasses collected.
Ends/Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:35
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