Press Releases
Development of poultry slaughtering centre shelved
The Government announced today (June 1) that it would shelve the development
of a poultry slaughtering centre (PSC) at this stage.
At a press conference held today, the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York
Chow, said: "The Government has made this decision mainly because our latest
scientific assessment confirmed that the risk of avian influenza in Hong
Kong at present is very low. This is the outcome of the biosecurity measures
and preventive and control measures against avian influenza implemented at
the poultry farm, wholesale, retail and import levels over the years. There
is therefore at present no need to develop a PSC in Hong Kong.
"The decision to shelve the development of a PSC is based on science, with
the health of the public as an overriding concern," he said.
Earlier on, the Government conducted a scientific assessment to evaluate the
risk of human infection by avian influenza viruses associated with the live
poultry trade in Hong Kong, and consulted the Scientific Committee on
Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases on the results of the assessment. The
committee, chaired by Professor Yuen Kwok-yung and comprising doctors,
veterinarians, microbiologists and other experts, agreed that the risk of
avian influenza to Hong Kong had been significantly reduced in recent years
and confirmed the efficacy of the control and surveillance measures at all
levels.
Furthermore, according to the on-going surveillance conducted in retail
outlets by the University of Hong Kong, the isolation rate of H9N2 viruses,
which is a good indicator of the loading of avian influenza virus in the
poultry population, has significantly dropped from 5.11% before the ban on
the keeping of live poultry overnight in retail markets and introduction of
the buyout scheme for the live poultry trade in 2008 to 0.09% recently. This
shows that the risk of avian influenza at the retail level has been
successfully controlled at an extremely low level.
Since Hong Kong became the first place in the world to have identified human
infection by avian influenza in 1997, a number of preventive and control
measures have been implemented at various levels of the live poultry supply
chain, including local poultry farms, the wholesale market, retail outlets
and at the import level, to control the risk of avian influenza.
Live chicken consumption in Hong Kong has declined from a daily average of
92,000 chickens in 2003 to only 16,500 in 2009. The reduction in the number
of retail outlets, wholesalers and poultry farms and in rearing capacity has
greatly contributed to containing the chicken population and chicken supply
in Hong Kong at a steady level, thus minimising the chance of human contact
with live chickens.
"In recent years, consumers have demonstrated a preference for frozen and
chilled chickens. If this trend is to continue, the demand for live chickens
will remain steady or even decrease. This will further reduce the need to
develop a poultry slaughtering centre. In fact, we have conducted a
commercial viability study which concluded that it is not commercially
viable to run a poultry slaughtering centre in Hong Kong," Dr Chow said.
With the advancement in the technology for producing chilled food products
in recent years, the texture and taste of chilled chickens has become
increasingly close to those of live chickens. There has been a significant
rise in the market share of chilled and frozen chickens over the past few
years. Last year, the market share of live chickens was 6%, whereas the
share of chilled and frozen chickens was 30% and 64% respectively.
Dr Chow reiterated that the Government would maintain its efforts in
controlling the risk of avian influenza.
"The policy on banning the overnight stocking of live poultry at the retail
level will remain unchanged. We will keep the numbers and rearing capacity
of local chicken farms, the number of live poultry retail outlets and the
daily quantity of imported chickens unchanged.
"We will also strengthen our surveillance at the farm, wholesale, retail and
import levels, and regularly review the risk of avian influenza to Hong
Kong, with a view to ensuring that our policies are formulated in light of
the prevailing circumstances," he added.
Ends/Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Issued at HKT 18:28
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