Excerpt:
On Friday, Hong Kong's
Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced that poultry
imported from companies in mainland China would be subjected to "fast
tests" for the H7N9 and H5N1 strains of the virus.
According to a
statement, "Officers will randomly select 30 birds from each consignment
of around 1,000 (birds), to collect swabs and blood samples for the
rapid test detecting the H5 and H7 antigen and antibodies."
Results will available within five hours, with cleared poultry then taken to a temporary wholesale market in the city for sale.
"When there are birds
infected by H7 or H5, all the import of poultry will be suspended
according to the World Organization for Animal Health's
recommendations," said Allen Chan, senior veterinary officer with the
city's health department.
The current outbreak has
started to take its toll economically, after Yum Brands, the parent
company of KFC in China, warned this week that sales at its restaurants
across the country had suffered a sharp fall.
Xinhua also reported
that the price of poultry had fallen by up to 50% in some eastern cities
in the past week, hurting farmers economically. Shanghai has now
completely banned the sale of life poultry.
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