Press Releases
SFH on avian influenza detected in Po On Road Market
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
NNNN