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 Legislative Council Building today (December 10):

Reporter: The microbiologist of Hong Kong University says the vaccine used for the chickens of Hong Kong doesn't seem to be effective, and waiting the Government to look at the vaccines used on the Mainland. How do you respond to that?

Secretary for Food and Health: Regarding investigation of the outbreak, we follow two lines. First of all, we have to see where the source of the virus comes from, so this is the area that we look at the affected farm to see whether they lack biosecurity. The second is whether there is a change of immunity of the chickens in the farm to the virus, whether this change of immunity is due to the vaccination. So these are the two aspects that we will follow on. Regarding the vaccine, we have been using the same type of vaccine in the last six years. This is a natural trend that the virus would change over the years, even the minor genetic change. They may affect the immunity caused by the vaccination to the chicken. So we will be looking at how this would affect the decision of change of the vaccines. As you know, we have been using the H5N2 vaccines manufactured in the Netherlands. That was one of the most effective vaccines in the period of 2003 when we introduced that. Over the last few years it has been proven to be effective, but we also think that because of the change of the virus, we might have to look for a more appropriate vaccine. The Mainland has introduced a H5N1 vaccine in the last few years. They have also modified every now and then. So we have explored this option to look at whether we should change to the H5N1 vaccine too. But it is too premature to decide on that. We have to examine the recent virus whether it responds directly to the H5N1 vaccine. We have contacted the Mainland authorities to seek support and help, and see whether we can do some experiments to see if that is more effective than our current vaccine. As the same time, we will also be doing experiment with the Hong Kong University to see whether that is a much better way of vaccination. We have given the Hong Kong University some samples in June, when we had an outbreak here. They have been conducting some tests on chickens, because of the difficulty of finding a totally, sort of a clean chicken without any immunity so far they were not conclusive. And they said they would take a bit more time.

Reporter: Why don't we just use the vaccine of the Mainland? It is more cost effective...

Secretary for Food and Health: I doubt about the cost, because we were offered the vaccine at that time at a much cheaper price than the vaccine we are using. So this is not a matter of cost, but whether it is effective. As you know that the virus that is detected in some parts of the Mainland is different from that we have detected in Hong Kong. So we got to make sure that the vaccine is effective first. So we have to rely on the scientific experts' opinion on how to use it. Even if we use it, we need to start off with some pilot areas and selected farms.

Reporter: Do you have any idea what causes H5N1 to go through the biosecurity measures?

Secretary for Food and Health: We don’t have any conclusion yet, but we are doing the investigations to check the setting of the farm. And also to get statements from the various workers who work in the farm to see whether there were any lapse of biosecurity measures, and whether there are any measures that should have been taken but not being done. So it takes some time for that investigation. I am not sure if we can actually draw a conclusion at this time. But I think we will try every means to get information from the farm and also from the workers.

Reporter: What factor do you think?

Secretary for Food and Health: As I said yesterday, we cannot exclude anything. But this is a big farm with 60,000 chickens. And we have also monitored the number of chickens in each of those farms in Hong Kong every week. I think that opportunity is there, but I don't think this is something that we can be conclusive right now.

Reporter: Any sign of spreading?

Secretary for Food and Health: No. I think this is well controlled. As far as we know, the farm is the only place that had dead chickens in the last two days. Our inspectors have also gone through the other farms in Hong Kong. And every farm is normal, there is no sign of any untoward conditions or increasing deaths in those farms. We have also collected samples for testing for the PCR. It is a quick test. That should be available in a day or two. So far we do not see any sign of spreading. And I have to reassure that everything is under control. We will be responding if you have found any new evidence anywhere. As you know that we are always very concerned about avian flu in Hong Kong, and whenever we find any early signs, we will take action right away.

Reporter: Have FAO or OIE been informed?

Secretary for Food and Health: We have informed them. The samples we have to collect and do our own culture first.

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


Ends/Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Issued at HKT 19:06

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