Press Releases
Transcript of SFH on avian influenza
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session before a luncheon today (June
12):
Reporter: (about vaccine)
Secretary for Food and Health: We are looking at three possible causes for this
contamination of the environment. The first is whether there is any change of
the virus. We have excluded this because we have gone through very detailed
studies of the genetic sequencing of the virus. The second is whether the
immunity status of the chickens has changed so that they are carrying the virus
and yet they do not have any symptoms. Our scientists have also studied the
serological status, that is the antibody level of chickens and also the
droppings of those chickens in the past period on a regular basis. We did not
find any abnormality in there. These two possibilities can be ruled out, but we
are still going to do some more research on the possibility of the immunity of
chickens.
Reporter: (about vaccine)
Secretary for Food and Health: That means whether the vaccine is providing
sufficient protection so that the chickens would not contain the virus or shed
any virus. This is something that we have done a bit of research so far, but we
would like to repeat again.
Reporter: (about resistance to vaccine)
Secretary for Food and Health: If it happens in chickens, we will be able to
demonstrate that the resistance of the chickens is actually related to their
antibody level. We have not found any lowering of the antibody level of those
chickens. We have not found any shedding of virus from those chickens in the
farms either.
Reporter: Is it time for Hong Kong to have a centralised slaughterhouse?
Secretary for Food and Health: According to our statistics, the chickens sold by
the affected stores for the three additional stores is around about a thousand
chickens, and for the three affected markets are about 4,000 chickens. So I
think anybody perhaps been in contact with those chickens or in those markets in
case they have any health problem, any symptoms of upper respiratory infection,
appeal to them that they should contact doctors as soon as possible. We have
also made an appeal to the public if they have any history of contacting
chickens in a market or anywhere and if they have similar symptoms they should
inform the doctor as early as possible so we can trace whether they are affected
by H5N1. Regarding the issue of central slaughtering, it is always the
government's position that we should have a central slaughtering of chickens in
the medium and long term. We will be working very hard on choosing a site, we
have already identified a site in that territory. At the same time, we have also
been doing a number of feasibility studies, both on the business side, as well
as on the environment.
Reporter: It seems that retailers not really like the idea, what kind of
suggestions...
Secretary for Food and Health: As I said earlier on, it seems that the licensing
conditions of the retailers as well as the measures that are being taken, both
by the retailers and also the inspections that we have done are insufficient in
maintaining the safety of the environment and market, so we will be discussing
with the trade on how to improve that so we can have a cleaner environment and
also a faster turnover of the chickens in the market. One of the suggestions
given by experts is to slaughter all chickens at the end of the day so that we
do not have an opportunity to build up the virus load in the environment.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, June 12, 2008
Issued at HKT 19:23
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