Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese Email this article news.gov.hk
Response level for avian influenza down to alert level
******************************************************

    The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, today (July 9) announced that on the advice of the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation and the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene, he had decided to scale down the response level for avian influenza from "serious" to "alert".

    After the detection of H5N1 avian influenza in environmental samples collected from poultry stalls in Po On Road Market, Sham Shui Po, on June 7, the Government had raised the response level to serious. With more environmental samples from three other retail markets found to have the virus on June 11, live chicken trading in Hong Kong was suspended for 21 days.

    The Government implemented a ban on overnight stocking of live poultry in retail outlets when live chicken sales resumed on July 2. All live chickens at retail outlets are slaughtered before 8pm every day and cages and poultry slaughtering equipment are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. This could help reduce the risk of avian influenza outbreaks by preventing the accumulation of the virus in retail outlets.

    The ban has been in place for a week and market operations have been generally smooth. The environmental hygiene of the retail outlets has also improved. 

    The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department has collected samples from chicken farms, the wholesale market and retail outlets and tested them for avian influenza H5N1. All results were negative.

    "The Government has decided to scale down the response level after assessing the present risk posed by avian influenza, taking into account the above factors," Dr Chow said.

    He appealed to the public to remain vigilant and pay attention to personal and environmental hygiene in order to prevent avian influenza.

Ends/Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:53

NNNN

Print this page