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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session at Murray Building today (June 7):
Reporter: Whether there will be a further culling of chickens?
Dr York Chow: At this moment, since we have detected the virus in one market, we will cull all the chickens in this market, which has altogether nine stalls. Although we have discovered the virus from three stalls, we will cull all the chickens in these nine stalls, which amounts to 2 700. The most important thing is to trace where they came from if we can. We have traced it to the wholesale market and the relevant stalls in the wholesale market, and perhaps also to the relevant farms. This is the work that we are doing right now. The second thing is we want to make sure that the public will not be affected, or if they are really affected by the avian influenza they would be detected and treated early. And that is the reason why the Centre for Health Protection has heightened their alert and appealed to the public to approach them if they have any symptoms of influenza after contacted with chickens.
As I have explain earlier, our existing guideline is if there is one detection of H5N1 in one market, we will cull the chickens in that market; but if we found another possible detection in another market, we assume the risk is much higher and we need to cull all the chickens in all the markets.
Reporter: Is there a breakdown in the surveillance? And you've vaccinated all the chickens in the market and why now you've found virus in the market?
Dr York Chow: You are talking about two things. Actually we are very grateful that we have such a strong surveillance that enables us to detect the virus in the market this time. You are talking about whether the biosecurity and the vaccination policy of our poultry are functioning, and that is exactly what the concern is all about. We cannot tell until we have done all the investigation and check where these chickens came from, and whether these farms have complied with all our requirements on vaccination and biosecurity measures. So, we really have to trace to the source of this virus before we can tell whether there is any change in the virus.
Reporter: How long will it take?
Dr York Chow: We are doing everything in full speed right now. We'll be also analyzing the genetic make up of virus to see if there are any changes.
Reporter: Is it safe to eat chickens right now?
Dr York Chow: As far as chicken is concerned, we still allow chilled chickens to come into Hong Kong. The risk, according to experts, is related to any chicken which is sick. Whatever way you handle chicken, you should observe personal hygiene first, wash your hands after contacted with chickens, and cook the chicken thoroughly before you eat. I'll ask Dr Thomas Tsang to speak more on this.
Dr Thomas Tsang: Chilled chicken, because the virus cannot replicate in these chilled chickens, so it's relatively safe. As always, our health advice is: cook all meat, especially raw meat, thoroughly before you eat because the virus cannot stand high temperature. Right now we are targeting our surveillance at the affected market, particularly those stalls we've found virus. So if anybody has bought chicken in that market and they feel uncertain of what to do, they can call our hotline at 2125 1122, we'll have medical personnel to address this specific concern.
Reporter: Will you advise vaccination for seasonal flu at this point?
Dr Thomas Tsang: It's actually two different things. The seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against avian influenza, so we are not talking about vaccination against avian flu. The most important thing to prevent avian flu is to observe good personal hygiene, wash your hands frequently and avoid touching live poultry as much as possible.
Reporter: Would this incident make it more desirable to go for central slaughtering?
Dr York Chow: We are always saying that the segregation of human and live poultry is important to prevent avian flu. So, whatever has happened this is something we have planned ahead and is progressing right now. At the moment, the plan is for 2011-2012. This is the fastest we can do according to the existing way of planning, building and also tendering.
Reporter: Why genetic sequencing is important?
Dr York Chow: Genetic sequencing is important of course to see whether the virus has transformed into any new type of virus which has different pathogenesis. This is the sort of routine tests that we will do if we found any possible virus in the environment.
Reporter: (on increase chicken imports during festive periods) With hindsight, is this a good decision?
Dr York Chow: We did that every year for four seasonal periods, including the Tuen Ng Festival. This year's increased number is no different from previous years. I think we have to investigate into the whole incident, particularly the source of the chickens, before we make any decision for the next time. We also concern about the whole biosecurity and vaccination programmes as a whole. So, we are not ruling out any increase at the moment.
Reporter: The biosecurity and vaccination programmes at present, in English please?
Dr Thomas Sit: Biosecurity measures and vaccination are both important keys to prevent avian influenza. Biosecurity measures aimed to prevent the introduction of virus or viruses from any wild birds or birds with unknown sources (to poultry). Vaccination is an important step in case the bird encounters viruses and he can be protected. Also, chicken is reared in flock. If all the chickens have public immunity, it can help to prevent the virus from spreading to other chickens. To this, biosecurity measures and vaccination are important.
(Please also refer to the Chinese session of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, June 7, 2008
Issued at HKT 20:18
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