Press Releases
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 at the West
Wing lobby of Central Government Offices today (December 9):
Secretary for Food and Health: We have received a report from the
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) that there was
an outbreak of chicken deaths in one chicken farm in Yuen Long yesterday
morning. We have discovered that there were up to 60 dead chickens in that
farm, and after a series of tests, we have confirmed this morning that the
chickens died from H5 virus. We had a meeting with all the concern
departments this afternoon including the AFCD, the Department of Health
and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD). And with the
recommendation of the AFCD, I have elevated the alert state of avian
influenza to "serious" starting from now.
The AFCD has already declared the affected farm as the index farm.
And from that we have drawn a three-kilometre radius, so that any chicken
in that area will be considered infected. The total infected farm would be
two, and altogether there were about 80000 chickens. We shall cull those
chickens, starting from the index farm, and then the second farm.
We had also decided that we shall ban all the outlets of chickens
from our farms for 21 days, and also suspend all the import of chicken and
poultry including birds for the next 21 days.
Since there are also chickens stored in Cheung Sha Wan Wholesale
Market, they will also be culled starting from tomorrow.
The AFCD and the FEHD would also clean up those retail outlets and
the wholesale market, to ensure that there would not be any more spreading
of the virus. The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) will contact the
owners and the workers of the affected farms, to make sure they are not
infected. So far we have not received any information about people being
affected. Hong Kong is facing a new alert of avian flu. We should be more
cautious particularly with the winter coming and also the appearance of H5
virus in our farm. I hope that all the citizens would be more cautious and
ensure they look after themselves well, and also ensure they have a good
personal hygiene and environmental hygiene.
Reporter: How could this happen again?
Secretary for Food and Health: The last time we have outbreak in a farm is
at the end of 2002. With all the measures taken in the last six years, so
far we did not have any outbreaks in any farms. This time round we are
concerned about whether it would lead to such an outbreak. Now that the
deaths were chickens breeders and also the so call sentinel chicken, that
is, chicken that had not been vaccinated. We also found more vaccinated
chickens being affected. We have to investigate the cause of the outbreak,
and the sequence of the outbreak. We have to analyse the whole situation.
And obviously we are concerned where the virus come from, as you know that
virus exists in our natural environment with all the wild birds. This is
something that we always aware of. But whether there is any biosecurity
lapse in the farm or whether there is any contamination of any sort inside
the farm, that requires more investigations.
Reporter: (inaudible)
AFCD Assistant Director (Inspection & Quarantine) Dr. Thomas Sit: We know
the viruses existed in the region especially in the winter time. The
migrating birds and the wild birds will carry the virus. And during our
surveillance in the last few years, you know the viruses present in the
wild birds and the dead birds surveillance. That’s why we had to
investigate whether there will be some contamination from the wild bird
species or other means for the virus to get into the farm and make the
chicken infected. We will conduct investigation including taking blood
samples and faecal samples in the affected farm.
Reporter: Does that mean the vaccine is useless?
Secretary for Food and Health: We cannot confirm this yet, but according
to the facts received, there are also chickens with vaccination affected.
So we have to investigate on both, whether the virus has changed or
whether the vaccination has changed the immunity of them.
Reporter: … or any changes of the…?
Secretary for Food and Health: We cannot conclude in just a couple of
days. Usually, virus sequencing would take actually a few days, or up to
two or three weeks before we can be certain. We will be doing more tests
on this virus and we are also working with the Hong Kong University on
this.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: We have been using the same vaccine during
the last, I think six years.
Reporter: Mainland……?
Secretary for Food and Health: I think there is always outbreak of chicken
everywhere, every now and then. We have not actually received any
information from the Mainland.
Reporter: So, we won’t have any fresh chicken immediately?
Secretary for Food and Health: 21 days, I think it would be from now until
after Christmas.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: We cannot conclude with just the
information we got so far. We are investigating on various factors. As I
mentioned earlier on, there are quite a number of factors that could
actually result in such an outbreak.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: I think in May/April. Actually we have
declared Hong Kong is in "Serious" state for 21 days, when we have a H5N1
virus in our market. Do you remember that?
Reporter: …infected chickens?
Secretary for Food and Health: Since we have tested chickens from this
farm last Friday. And after that, that batch of chickens was already gone
into the market. And I believe it was all sold by now. Any of the new
development after that could be only in a couple of days. So I don’t think
there is any delay in the reporting of this farm incident.
Reporter: Financial tsunami…?
AFCD Assistant Director (Inspection & Quarantine) Dr. Thomas Sit: I think
we are very unfortunate to start with. And these are not something
related. The risk of avian flu is always there in our environment. And I
think we have been always very vigilant in monitoring various biosecurity
of our own farms and also the imported poultry. So in this case, of course
I am concerned whether there is any extra factor that would affect us, and
any extra measure that we have to take in the future. Unless we have any
new information regarding the virus, and also the effectiveness of the
vaccination, otherwise, I think the existing measures are basically of the
international standards, and these are measures we need to continue. Apart
from the policy and the measures, we have to ensure that people comply
with them. We will try to investigate and see whether we can find a more
probable cause for this outbreak.
Reporter: …sufficient vaccine in stock?
Secretary for Food and Health: As we have always prepared for the arrival
of a possible pandemic, we have actually quite a sizeable stock of Tamiflu
in the Department of Health and it should be quite sufficient for our
protection up to about 20% of our population. So for this particular
incident, we don’t worry the shortage of Tamiflu. We should have
sufficient drugs and medicines to look after anybody who might be exposed
to avian flu.
Report: What about the vaccine?
Secretary for Food and Health: You mean avian flu vaccine for human? No, I
think it is still in a very early experiment stage.
(Please also refer to the Chinese session of the transcript)
Ends/Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Issued at HKT 00:50
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