Press Releases

SFH on dead chickens

Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session after attending radio programmes this morning (March 15):

Reporter: What is the latest situation on the mainland......

Secretary for Food and Health: As far as we know, we receive from the Ministry of Agriculture this morning that some of the chickens that are found dead were culled yesterday in Guangzhou, and are traced to the wholesale market in Foshan. And that is the reason why they need to cull some chickens in Foshan market and also do the thorough clean-up at the Foshan market. At the moment, we do not know whether this is a H5 infection that has resulted in the death of chickens. The samples have been sent to National Laboratory to ascertain that whether this is H5 virus. As soon as the results come back, I will be able to inform the public. At the same time, we will start our preventive measures to control the import of chickens within the 13-kilometre radius from the outbreak area.

(Please also refer to the Chinese session of the transcript)


Ends/Saturday, March 15, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:11

NNNN