Yuen Long farm outbreak of bird flu

2008-12-22

Figure: AFCD staff at a farm in Ha Tsuen, Yuen Long live the destruction of

Melamine troubled by the events in Hong Kong for more than three months, also near the end of the outbreak of bird flu, one after another, and another! Yuen Long in 2003 a number of farms after the outbreak of bird flu, six years apart once again hit local chicken farms, the infected farm to be destroyed and Cheung Sha Wan wholesale market a total of 90,000 live chickens, as well as the moratorium on the sale of a comprehensive ban on live chicken and Entrance, "people do this winter with no fresh chickens."

Long a farm bird flu outbreak, there are more than a hundred dead chickens, even the "chicken vaccine" also hit, the testing, confirmed that chickens infected with H5 avian flu, ordered the immediate farms within a radius of three kilometers will be classified as SARS District and the destruction of two chicken farms in the region and the Cheung Sha Wan wholesale market for a total of about 90,000 live chickens, which is the second largest in 2002 after the slaughter of chickens, is the ninth chickens in Hong Kong. At the same time, the Government ordered a comprehensive moratorium on the sale of imported live chickens and three weeks, members of the public for the first time through the "live food" Winter Solstice. Food and Health Secretary York Chow said he believes the virus did not originate from the farm, but into the over-the-counter, it is estimated that the smuggling of chicken with the unlikely.

Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department samples and found its genetic map has slight changes, not a variant, with the Mainland and found that the different varieties. As a result, the authorities believe the virus came from the local area or nearby. However, the virus has yet to find the source did not rule out the possibility of chicken smuggling, the government needs further investigation.

Hong Kong Head of the Department of microbiology Yuen Kwok-yung said that the "chicken vaccine" is also infected, the situation is unusual, the vaccine used in the past six years, the failure may have been eroded, as soon as there is a need to review the effectiveness of the vaccine.