Press Releases
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
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