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Hong Kong kills 8,300 chickens as bird flu found |
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| CHINA: February 3, 2003 | ||
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HONG KONG - Hong Kong authorities ordered the destruction of 8,300 chickens after some were found dead and tested positive for the "bird flu" virus that killed six people in 1997, the agriculture department said.
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Tests were carried out after 40 birds were found dead on a farm in the New Territories area near the border with mainland China. The test results, issued late last week, indicated the presence of H5 avian influenza virus in some samples, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said in a statement. "The farmer culled all the 8,300 chickens in the sheds where the dead chickens were found," the AFCD said. "The AFCD helped to dispose of them in the landfill." An AFCD spokeswoman said the tests indicated only that the outbreak was caused by an H5 virus. Further testing was needed to determine if it was the H5N1 strain that made the unusual jump from birds to humans in 1997. Congested Hong Kong with a population of 6.8 million people has been hit by three major bird-flu outbreaks in the last five years, each time leading to massive culls of poultry. Several instances of bird flu have been detected in Hong Kong in the last few months, prompting health workers to kill more than 10,000 chickens in some retail markets in a bid to prevent a repeat of the 1997 tragedy.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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