November 29, 2004
Government Press Release
Anti-bird flu plan ready next month: York Chow

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Poultry policy: On the separation of poultry from humans policy, Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr York Chow stresses the need to study the views of the public and the sector before a final decision is made.

Anti-bird flu contingency measures, including a proposal to separate poultry from humans and a series of traffic and logistics measures will be discussed at the Legislative Council's Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene Panel meeting next month. Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Dr York Chow says the contingency plan would come into force if an outbreak occurred near Hong Kong.

Speaking on a radio talk show this morning, Dr Chow said the separation of poultry from humans policy, which will be determined after a decision whether to set up a central slaughtering house or several regional ones, would be based on the demand for live chickens.

He pointed out that at present there were 30,000 live chickens imported from the Mainland and 30,000 supplied locally. If this demand persisted, there would be no central slaughtering house or wholesale point that could handle such an amount and regional slaughtering houses could be the choice.

He added that building of regional slaughtering houses took time, but stressed the need to study the views of the public and the sector before a final decision was made.

Regarding avian flu vaccination for humans, Dr Chow said it was still being developed. He added that it may not be reliable in the case of an outbreak as records show vaccination can only offer 5% protection against a virus.

He said Hong Kong had more experience and expertise than neighbouring territories in the fight against viral outbreaks, and was willing to offer them help. He added there was no "boundary" for infectious diseases and close cooperation among different countries had to be maintained to fight against a possible outbreak.

Bird flu 'entrenched' in Asia: WHO official
Paris Lord, Hong Kong Standard
30 November 2004

The world should learn from Hong Kong how to tackle infectious diseases such as Sars and avian influenza, particularly as the latter could begin the next flu pandemic, a senior World Health Organisation official said on Monday.

Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club about the likelihood of Sars' return, Western Pacific region director Shigeru Omi said the WHO was no longer concerned about the disease but with an influenza pandemic which could kill up to 100 million people worldwide.

Some 32 people have died in Vietnam and Thailand this year from bird flu, and tens of millions of chickens have been culled. An outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in Hong Kong in 1997 killed six people.

The WHO's new theory is that ducks may be a major spreader of the disease because the virus has jumped from chickens to ducks to tigers and pigs, Omi said.

Hong Kong's animal husbandry measures include segregating chick-ens and ducks, putting nets over chicken farms to keep out migrating birds and suspending live chicken sales at wet markets once a month for cleaning.

While more scientific research was needed to prove how effective such measures were, "certainly these are the common sense approaches [and] one I like to recommend", Omi said.

He listed four reasons why the influenza pandemic would eventually return and kill tens of millions.

First, in the 19th and 20th centuries, influenza pandemics occurred about every 30 years. Because the last pandemics were in 1957 and 1968, many scientists believe "the next one is due," Omi said.

Second, the geographical spread of chickens killed by bird flu across Asia was "unprecedented", making the WHO believe the virus is "entrenched" in the region.

Third, the virus is very "versatile" and has changed genetically in recent years, becoming more pathogenic and jumping species.

Fourth, the part of ducks in spreading the virus has changed since the 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong from a minor to major role.

"Of course we have to do more research about how the ducks participate in the chain of transmission," Omi said.

Among the reasons why battling bird flu is more challenging than Sars is while Sars is mostly an urban disease confined to hospitals, bird flu is mostly a rural disease where surveillance is largely non-existent or low.

"That's why it's very difficult for countries to identify this one, let alone respond to it in a prompt time," Omi said.

Another challenge is that because chicken farming is an integral part of the economies of some countries, it was a "human instinct" to protect the economy.

Controlling the disease meant involving both a country's health ministry and its agricultural ministry, Omi said.

Every country must do four things to prepare for the pandemic - share information about the virus strains and vaccines being used, intensify research into influenza viruses, continue developing vaccines to slow its spread and improve animal husbandry practices, he said.

He cautioned that countries should not assume that a vaccine was a "panacea" for averting the pandemic, and to maintain traditional control measures including quarantining.

A vaccine would not be ready until at least six months after an outbreak, because no vaccine manufacturer would be able to meet the immediate demand, and it would need to pass safety tests. No pharmaceutical company would start production without having a market for its vaccine, and this required being able to identify the virus strain through information-sharing between countries, Omi added.

A Health, Welfare and Food Bureau spokesman said on Monday that the government will continue to maintain close working relationships with national, regional and international agencies to control diseases.

"Major activities include the local and global surveillance network, investigation and control measures, anti-viral stockpiling, implementation of vaccination programmes for people at high risk, and port health measures," he said.

The disease in birds: impact and control measures
From the World Health Organization

Avian influenza is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. The disease, which was first identified in Italy more than 100 years ago, occurs worldwide.

All birds are thought to be susceptible to infection with avian influenza, though some species are more resistant to infection than others. Infection causes a wide spectrum of symptoms in birds, ranging from mild illness to a highly contagious and rapidly fatal disease resulting in severe epidemics. The latter is known as “highly pathogenic avian influenza”. This form is characterized by sudden onset, severe illness, and rapid death, with a mortality that can approach 100%.

Fifteen subtypes of influenza virus are known to infect birds, thus providing an extensive reservoir of influenza viruses potentially circulating in bird populations. To date, all outbreaks of the highly pathogenic form have been caused by influenza A viruses of subtypes H5 and H7.

Migratory waterfowl – most notably wild ducks – are the natural reservoir of avian influenza viruses, and these birds are also the most resistant to infection. Domestic poultry, including chickens and turkeys, are particularly susceptible to epidemics of rapidly fatal influenza.

Direct or indirect contact of domestic flocks with wild migratory waterfowl has been implicated as a frequent cause of epidemics. Live bird markets have also played an important role in the spread of epidemics.

Recent research has shown that viruses of low pathogenicity can, after circulation for sometimes short periods in a poultry population, mutate into highly pathogenic viruses. During a 1983–1984 epidemic in the United States of America, the H5N2 virus initially caused low mortality, but within six months became highly pathogenic, with a mortality approaching 90%. Control of the outbreak required destruction of more than 17 million birds at a cost of nearly US$ 65 million. During a 1999–2001 epidemic in Italy, the H7N1 virus, initially of low pathogenicity, mutated within 9 months to a highly pathogenic form. More than 13 million birds died or were destroyed.

The quarantining of infected farms and destruction of infected or potentially exposed flocks are standard control measures aimed at preventing spread to other farms and eventual establishment of the virus in a country’s poultry population. Apart from being highly contagious, avian influenza viruses are readily transmitted from farm to farm by mechanical means, such as by contaminated equipment, vehicles, feed, cages, or clothing. Highly pathogenic viruses can survive for long periods in the environment, especially when temperatures are low. Stringent sanitary measures on farms can, however, confer some degree of protection.

In the absence of prompt control measures backed by good surveillance, epidemics can last for years. For example, an epidemic of H5N2 avian influenza, which began in Mexico in 1992, started with low pathogenicity, evolved to the highly fatal form, and was not controlled until 1995.

A constantly mutating virus: two consequences

All type A influenza viruses, including those that regularly cause seasonal epidemics of influenza in humans, are genetically labile and well adapted to elude host defenses. Influenza viruses lack mechanisms for the “proofreading” and repair of errors that occur during replication. As a result of these uncorrected errors, the genetic composition of the viruses changes as they replicate in humans and animals, and the existing strain is replaced with a new antigenic variant. These constant, permanent and usually small changes in the antigenic composition of influenza A viruses are known as antigenic “drift”.

The tendency of influenza viruses to undergo frequent and permanent antigenic changes necessitates constant monitoring of the global influenza situation and annual adjustments in the composition of influenza vaccines. Both activities have been a cornerstone of the WHO Global Influenza Programme since its inception in 1947.

Influenza viruses have a second characteristic of great public health concern: influenza A viruses, including subtypes from different species, can swap or “reassort” genetic materials and merge. This reassortment process, known as antigenic “shift”, results in a novel subtype different from both parent viruses. As populations will have no immunity to the new subtype, and as no existing vaccines can confer protection, antigenic shift has historically resulted in highly lethal pandemics. For this to happen, the novel subtype needs to have genes from human influenza viruses that make it readily transmissible from person to person for a sustainable period.

Conditions favourable for the emergence of antigenic shift have long been thought to involve humans living in close proximity to domestic poultry and pigs. Because pigs are susceptible to infection with both avian and mammalian viruses, including human strains, they can serve as a “mixing vessel” for the scrambling of genetic material from human and avian viruses, resulting in the emergence of a novel subtype. Recent events, however, have identified a second possible mechanism. Evidence is mounting that, for at least some of the 15 avian influenza virus subtypes circulating in bird populations, humans themselves can serve as the “mixing vessel”.

Human infection with avian influenza viruses: a timeline

Avian influenza viruses do not normally infect species other than birds and pigs. The first documented infection of humans with an avian influenza virus occurred in Hong Kong in 1997, when the H5N1 strain caused severe respiratory disease in 18 humans, of whom 6 died. The infection of humans coincided with an epidemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza, caused by the same strain, in Hong Kong’s poultry population.

Extensive investigation of that outbreak determined that close contact with live infected poultry was the source of human infection. Studies at the genetic level further determined that the virus had jumped directly from birds to humans. Limited transmission to health care workers occurred, but did not cause severe disease.

Rapid destruction – within three days – of Hong Kong’s entire poultry population, estimated at around 1.5 million birds, reduced opportunities for further direct transmission to humans, and may have averted a pandemic.

That event alarmed public health authorities, as it marked the first time that an avian influenza virus was transmitted directly to humans and caused severe illness with high mortality. Alarm mounted again in February 2003, when an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in Hong Kong caused 2 cases and 1 death in members of a family who had recently travelled to southern China. Another child in the family died during that visit, but the cause of death is not known.

Two other avian influenza viruses have recently caused illness in humans. An outbreak of highly pathogenic H7N7 avian influenza, which began in the Netherlands in February 2003, caused the death of one veterinarian two months later, and mild illness in 83 other humans. Mild cases of avian influenza H9N2 in children occurred in Hong Kong in 1999 (two cases) and in mid-December 2003 (one case). H9N2 is not highly pathogenic in birds.

The most recent cause for alarm occurred in January 2004, when laboratory tests confirmed the presence of H5N1 avian influenza virus in human cases of severe respiratory disease in the northern part of Viet Nam.

Why H5N1 is of particular concern

Of the 15 avian influenza virus subtypes, H5N1 is of particular concern for several reasons. H5N1 mutates rapidly and has a documented propensity to acquire genes from viruses infecting other animal species. Its ability to cause severe disease in humans has now been documented on two occasions. In addition, laboratory studies have demonstrated that isolates from this virus have a high pathogenicity and can cause severe disease in humans. Birds that survive infection excrete virus for at least 10 days, orally and in faeces, thus facilitating further spread at live poultry markets and by migratory birds.

The epidemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza caused by H5N1, which began in mid-December 2003 in the Republic of Korea and is now being seen in other Asian countries, is therefore of particular public health concern. H5N1 variants demonstrated a capacity to directly infect humans in 1997, and have done so again in Viet Nam in January 2004. The spread of infection in birds increases the opportunities for direct infection of humans. If more humans become infected over time, the likelihood also increases that humans, if concurrently infected with human and avian influenza strains, could serve as the “mixing vessel” for the emergence of a novel subtype with sufficient human genes to be easily transmitted from person to person. Such an event would mark the start of an influenza pandemic.

Influenza pandemics: can they be averted?

Based on historical patterns, influenza pandemics can be expected to occur, on average, three to four times each century when new virus subtypes emerge and are readily transmitted from person to person. However, the occurrence of influenza pandemics is unpredictable. In the 20th century, the great influenza pandemic of 1918–1919, which caused an estimated 40 to 50 million deaths worldwide, was followed by pandemics in 1957–1958 and 1968–1969.

Experts agree that another influenza pandemic is inevitable and possibly imminent.

Most influenza experts also agree that the prompt culling of Hong Kong’s entire poultry population in 1997 probably averted a pandemic.

Several measures can help minimize the global public health risks that could arise from large outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in birds. An immediate priority is to halt further spread of epidemics in poultry populations. This strategy works to reduce opportunities for human exposure to the virus. Vaccination of persons at high risk of exposure to infected poultry, using existing vaccines effective against currently circulating human influenza strains, can reduce the likelihood of co-infection of humans with avian and influenza strains, and thus reduce the risk that genes will be exchanged. Workers involved in the culling of poultry flocks must be protected, by proper clothing and equipment, against infection. These workers should also receive antiviral drugs as a prophylactic measure.

When cases of avian influenza in humans occur, information on the extent of influenza infection in animals as well as humans and on circulating influenza viruses is urgently needed to aid the assessment of risks to public health and to guide the best protective measures. Thorough investigation of each case is also essential. While WHO and the members of its global influenza network, together with other international agencies, can assist with many of these activities, the successful containment of public health risks also depends on the epidemiological and laboratory capacity of affected countries and the adequacy of surveillance systems already in place.

While all these activities can reduce the likelihood that a pandemic strain will emerge, the question of whether another influenza pandemic can be averted cannot be answered with certainty.

Clinical course and treatment of human cases of H5N1 avian influenza

Published information about the clinical course of human infection with H5N1 avian influenza is limited to studies of cases in the 1997 Hong Kong outbreak. In that outbreak, patients developed symptoms of fever, sore throat, cough and, in several of the fatal cases, severe respiratory distress secondary to viral pneumonia. Previously healthy adults and children, and some with chronic medical conditions, were affected.

Tests for diagnosing all influenza strains of animals and humans are rapid and reliable. Many laboratories in the WHO global influenza network have the necessary high-security facilities and reagents for performing these tests as well as considerable experience. Rapid bedside tests for the diagnosis of human influenza are also available, but do not have the precision of the more extensive laboratory testing that is currently needed to fully understand the most recent cases and determine whether human infection is spreading, either directly from birds or from person to person.

Antiviral drugs, some of which can be used for both treatment and prevention, are clinically effective against influenza A virus strains in otherwise healthy adults and children, but have some limitations. Some of these drugs are also expensive and supplies are limited.

Experience in the production of influenza vaccines is also considerable, particularly as vaccine composition changes each year to match changes in circulating virus due to antigenic drift. However, at least four months would be needed to produce a new vaccine, in significant quantities, capable of conferring protection against a new virus subtype.

Pharma Investments, Ventures & Law Weekly
January 16, 2005
Pathogenic avian influenza in birds investigated in Hong Kong

Investigators report information on outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in waterfowl and wild birds in Hong Kong in late 2002 in a recent issue of Avian Pathology.

"Outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza have occurred in Hong Kong in chickens and other gallinaceous poultry in 1997, 2001, twice in 2002 and 2003. High mortality rates were seen in gallinaceous birds but not in domestic or wild waterfowl or other wild birds until late 2002 when highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza occurred in waterfowl (geese, ducks and swans), captive Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) and other wild birds (Little Egret Egretta garzetta) at two waterfowl parks and from two dead wild Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) and a Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) in Hong Kong. H5N1 avian influenza virus was also isolated from a dead feral pigeon (Columba livia) and a dead tree sparrow (Passer montanus) during the second outbreak," researchers in China report.

"The first waterfowl outbreak was controlled by immediate strict quarantine and depopulation 1 week before the second outbreak commenced," said Trevor M. Ellis at the Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department in Hong Kong and collaborators in China. "Control measures implemented for the second outbreak included strict isolation, culling, increased sanitation and vaccination. "Outbreaks in gallinaceous birds occurred in some live poultry markets concurrently with the second waterfowl outbreak, and infection on a chicken farm was detected 1 week after the second waterfowl park outbreak was detected, on the same day the second grey heron case was detected. Subsequent virus surveillance showed the outbreaks had been contained."

Ellis and associates published their study in Avian Pathology (Investigation of outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in waterfowl and wild birds in Hong Kong in late 2002. Avian Pathol, 2004;33(5):492-505).

For additional information, contact Trevor M. Ellis, Tai Lung Veterinary Laboratory, Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department, Lin Tong Mei, Sheung Shui, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China. E-mail: ellis_trevor@afcd.gov.hk.

Publisher contact information for the journal Avian Pathology is: Carfax Publishing, Rankine Road, Basingstoke RG24 8PR, Hants, England.

The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of Avian Influenza, Influenza Epidemiology, Zoonosis, Outbreaks, and Virology.

This article was prepared by Pharma Investments, Ventures & Law Weekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2005, Pharma Investments, Ventures & Law Weekly via LawRx.com.

January 12, 2005
Government Press Release
Chinese Pond Heron tests positive for H5

Preliminary tests on a Chinese Pond Heron found dead in Lok Ma Chau have indicated a suspected case of H5 avian influenza, and more tests are underway to confirm the nature of the virus.

Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department staff collected the dead bird on Sunday afternoon in a restricted area after a Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation consultant reported it.

A post-mortem examination at the department's Tai Lung Veterinary Laboratory showed that the bird was an H5 suspect.

As a safety measure, the AFCD will inspect all poultry farms within five kilometres where the bird was found.

The AFCD worker wore protective gear when collecting the bird, but will be under the Centre for Health Protection's observation.

Members of the public are reminded to observe good personal hygiene. They should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them.

The Chinese Pond Heron is an occasional migratory bird and many of them are residents in Hong Kong wetlands.

Oriental Magpie Robin tests H5N1 positive
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Government Press Release

An Oriental Magpie Robin found dead in Kam Shan Tsuen, Tai Po was confirmed to be H5N1 positive following a series of laboratory tests, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (January 19).

The spokesman stressed that the department would maintain frequent inspections on poultry farms to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza had been implemented.

The department had inspected the eight chicken farms within five kilometres of where the Oriental Magpie Robin was found.

"We will continue to monitor the poultry farms closely. There is no abnormal mortality and the chickens show no symptoms of avian influenza," he said.

The bird was collected by AFCD staff on January 10 upon a public referral.

People are reminded to observe good personal hygiene. They should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them.

Evacuation of estates likely in flu outbreak

The Housing Department has raised the specter of forced evacuation and quarantine should any public housing resident be infected with the H5N1 virus which reappeared in Hong Kong earlier this month after a year's absence.

Andrea Chiu
Hong Kong Standard
Saturday, January 21, 2006

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The Housing Department has raised the specter of forced evacuation and quarantine should any public housing resident be infected with the H5N1 virus which reappeared in Hong Kong earlier this month after a year's absence.

But an evacuation will only occur in an emergency situation, according to a department spokeswoman Friday. However, she declined to say what will be considered an emergency.

She said the department is strengthening preventative measures on estate property and is in close liaison with the health department.

The alarm was raised earlier this week when a dead Oriental magpie robin found in Tai Po had tested positive for the H5N1 virus. Deputy Director of Housing Lau Kai-hung said there were 30 blackspots in 17 public estates where wild birds and pigeons gather.

In November, the department banned tenants from feeding wild birds, music also blared from loudspeakers aimed at keeping the birds away.

"The droppings of feral pigeons may help spread harmful germs," Lau said at the time. "The safest and most effective, economical and humane way to minimize the congregation of pigeons is to avoid feeding them."

Tenants found violating these hygiene measures face a HK$1,500 fine and five demerit points under the Marking Scheme for Tenancy Enforcement. The strict measures are the result of lessons learned during the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Amoy Gardens housing estate in Kowloon Bay was devastated by the disease, accounting for 329 of 1,800 SARS cases in the territory. Block E was the epicenter where 200 residents fell ill and 42 died from the disease.

The sewage system and powerful exhaust fans are suspected to have spread the deadly virus through the building.

Also Friday, inspectors scoured bird markets and poultry farms for clues as to how the robin became infected with the virus. They also searched the Tai Po area where the bird was found.

As it was an Oriental magpie robin, native to Hong Kong, and not a migratory bird, there are fears there could be a hidden source of transmission. Officials, however, called for calm.

"The recent avian flu outbreak among birds and poultry in the region is a cause for concern," Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Carrie Yau said. "However, there's no evidence to date to suggest the H5N1 virus is capable of efficient human-to- human transmission."

Health chief York Chow said the main objective is to find out with what other birds the magpie robin may have come into contact.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said it will strengthen inspection procedures at places such as Yuen Po Street Bird Garden, which officers visit daily, as well as live poultry markets.

Authorities are also considering legislation that will require licenses for backyard poultry, Chow said.

"What's most important is to separate domestic poultry from wild birds to prevent any contact," he said.

Chow expects a draft bill to be forwarded to the Legislative Council within the year. Under the legislation, a household with 20 or more chickens will have to be licensed, he said.

Legislator Wong Yung-kan, who represents the agriculture and fisheries sector, said he welcomed the initiative but would have to see the bill in more detail before analyzing its effect on farmers.

Meanwhile, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Safety Markos Kyprianou stopped over in Hong Kong Friday after attending the Beijing International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza. He said he was impressed by Hong Kong's world-class facilities and avian flu preparation plans after visiting government laboratories and Princess Margaret Hospital.

In the mainland, a 35-year-old woman in Sichuan province was the ninth confirmed case of bird flu in China and the sixth to die from the disease.

米埔增抽驗候鳥次數
23/01/2006

http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/news/20060123/img/sn07012304_big.jpg

【本報訊】香港位於候鳥遷徙路線上，本港各大公園、自然保護區及農場已嚴陣以待，預防一觸即發的禽流感疫潮。

九龍公園試設帳篷
最多候鳥過冬的米埔自然保護區，世界自然基金會職員已經加密抽查野鳥唾液、糞便和血液樣本化驗次數，職員又會派發酒精消毒液及濕紙巾予觀鳥人士，入口處亦有口罩出售。如果區內發現H5N1病毒，會第一時間通知漁護署，有需要更會關閉保護區。

位於巿區的九龍公園，其雀鳥湖亦飼養了一千四百隻雀鳥，由於面積過大，無法長期設置防雀網，康樂文化事務署於去年十月在雀鳥湖試驗設立帳篷，禽流感一旦爆發，五個備用帳篷會即時開啟，以分隔野鳥及作檢疫之用。康文署轄下的香港動植物公園也已加設防雀網。

嘉道理農場也有一套戒備傳染病的應變計畫，如本港出現禽流感病毒個案，便會封鎖鸚鵡中心、猛禽中心等飼養禽鳥地方，如疫情嚴重，則會封閉整個嘉道理農場。目前農場每逢接收受傷雀鳥，都會將唾液樣本交給政府化驗所，以監測禽鳥病毒。http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/img/endmarker.gif

Just wondering if it's safe to eat fried chicken! I haven't been eating chicken for the past months since I don't wanna catch bird flu!

Anyway, I'll be safe cause I'm not in contact with any birds or poultry :)

Just wondering if it's safe to eat fried chicken! I haven't been eating chicken for the past months since I don't wanna catch bird flu!

You could catch the bird flu ONLY WHEN YOU EAT THE DEAD CHICKEN WHICH ARE SUFFERED FROM THIS DISEASE!!! So you don't have to worry about that!!! ;)

News from news.gov.hk:
Lunar New Year bird flu caution issued (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060124/html/060124en05006.htm)

News from RTHK:
Health officials attempt to allay concerns of bird flu (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060124&56&283596)

New NGO hopes to help prepare Hong Kong for bird flu

HONG KONG, Jan 26, 2006 (AFP) - A new non-governmental organisation has been set up in Hong Kong to help prepare the city for a bird flu pandemic, one of its trustees said Thursday.

The H5N1 Concern Group, which takes its name from the strain of avian flu menacing Asia and Europe, was set up to promote preparedness and to monitor government anti-flu measures.

"Our aim is to make Hong Kong bird flu free," said legislator Fred Li, one of the group's nine trustees.

"We have a programme we want to put in place that also includes monitoring government hospitals to make sure they are dealing with bird flu cases and preparations properly," Li said.

Six people died from the H5N1 strain in Hong Kong in 1997 in the first cases recorded here. Since then, the virus has killed more than 80 people throughout Asia and Eastern Europe and decimated poultry populations.

Scientists fear the virus may mutate into a form that could be easily passed between humans sparking a pandemic that World Health Organisation officials fear will kill millions of people.

The H5N1 Concern Group was set up with 2.8 million Hong Kong dollars (358,000 US dollars) in grants. Among the donors was the Li Ka-shing Foundation, the charitable organisation of Asia's richest man.

Other trustees are top Hong Kong University microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yun, who is part of an academic team researching bird flu and which identified the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus that struck in a deadly outbreak here in 2003.

The organisation is the brainchild of legislator Albert Cheng, a former outspoken radio talk-show host whose criticism of the government's handling of the SARS crisis is thought to have galvanised authorities' eventual response to the scourge.

ASIAN LIVES: Hong Kong SARS hero wages war on bird flu

HONG KONG, Jan 25, 2006 (AFP) - Malik Peiris quietly enters the library of the pathology research unit at Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital. The drone of air conditioners is all that cuts the silence in this cluttered, dilapidated room, where scholarly tomes lie in piles on shelves, apparently unbrowsed in years.

As beams of winter sunshine illuminate dust that swirls lazily in the stale air, it's hard to imagine this building is a nerve-centre in a global effort to save a sizeable portion of humanity from death.

And Peiris, in his comfortable slacks, with thinning hair and an avuncular smile, barely betrays the anxiety one would expect of someone whose job is to help safeguard mankind from emergent killer bugs such as bird flu.

But then Peiris has been here before.

In 2003 he led the team that first identified the virus behind Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a disease that emerged in southern China in late 2002 and went on to infect about 8,000 people and killed 800 in more than two dozen countries.

Now his team are being increasingly called upon to help fight avian flu, a disease with a frighteningly high mortality rate of above 50 percent that has killed more than 80 people in six countries since late 2003. China is believed to be ground zero for that disease too, though the first recorded cases were in Peiris's own backyard when six people died in Hong Kong in 1997.

The fear is that if the virus, which spreads between birds, mutates into a form that can be transmitted easily between humans, a resulting pandemic could kill millions and bring the global economy to its knees.

"It certainly worries me but I wouldn't say it keeps me up at night," Peiris says nonchalantly.

"It's part of many threats that we face. You have to keep it in proportion. I wouldn't change plans because of this threat but at the same time we have to take it seriously. Anyone who says this flu virus can never adapt to humans just has to look to SARS -- they are wrong," he warns.

-- 'Even during SARS, bird flu was always a greater threat' --

Peiris and his team at the university's human infectious disease unit have been the darlings of Asian microbiology since they cracked the SARS code. The previously unknown disease spread rapidly via airline passengers who took it as far as Vietnam, Singapore and Canada within days of being infected.

The team identified the scourge as a variant of the coronavirus family that causes pneumonia, and were able to help health workers intercept it and limit the outbreak.

About one tenth of those infected died -- a relatively low mortality rate -- and its spread was halted by quick detection and quarantine measures by governments acting in consort with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

But the disease had far more dire consequences on Hong Kong, where about 300 people -- many doctors and nurses who were infected by patients -- died.

Tourists and investors stayed away and the economy fell apart.

Nonetheless, Peiris says, even then he knew SARS was not the virus that the world should be most concerned about.

"Of course SARS was bad but we did realise that, because of its nature, it could be controlled by quick recognition and public health measures -- identifying patients and getting them into hospital -- you could break the transmission chain," he says. "With bird flu, that is not possible."

Peiris's labs also first identified the deadly bird flu strain as H5N1 after the 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong, and they have been working on it since, trying to identify its genetic make-up and find ways to counter the disease.

Unlike SARS, which is immediately identifiable and treatable, bird flu only shows itself through illness about a week after it has been contracted by the patient, a period in which the carrier is likely to have already passed the virus to other unwitting victims.

"For that reason and because we knew what it could do, we were worried," he says.

Throughout the SARS crisis, when Peiris and his colleagues were in daily consultation with WHO planners, the microbiologist's mind was always returning to the imminent bird flu threat. It was difficult letting the world know, however.

"We had all this excitement with SARS, but in the midst of all this we wrote a paper on these bird flu cases and submitted it to a prestigious US medical journal in 2003.

"But they were not interested -- they took all our SARS papers but not our bid flu piece, because it wasn't trendy," he recalls with a sigh.

As SARS-mania was beginning to mount in February 2003, a Hong Kong boy and his father were diagnosed with bird flu following a family trip to Fujian province in China. The father died and his daughter was also found to have died in Fujian, although she was not tested for bird flu.

This proved to Peiris that whatever other diseases were troubling the city, it would have a tougher time shaking off H5N1. By August, with SARS contained globally, his team was able to refocus on the "real threat" of bird flu.

-- 'Nature is by far the greatest bioterrorist' --

Peiris says his interest in microbiology was fired at a young age by a school book on the life of Louis Pasteur, the father of modern medicine. Intrigued by the fact that invisible "bugs" could fell entire populations and bring economies to their knees, he plunged headfirst into the study of virology.

He began his medical training in the 1960s, a time when he says such studies were considered unfashionable by a medical fraternity that believed antibiotics had won the war of the germs. But Peiris's experiences working with the afflicted in his poverty-stricken homeland of Sri Lanka told him such complacent thoughts were wrong.

"The global perception was moving away from infectious disease towards other challenges, like cancer and so on, which of course was a mistake," he says. "Coming from a third-world context, infections were still a problem. Things like diarrhoea were still serious problems in Sri Lanka."

The subsequent failure of successive antibiotics and the re-emergence of diseases that had been believed conquered is proof, he says, that something like bird flu cannot be simply ignored.

"Nature is by far the greatest bioterrorist. One cannot dismiss the problems associated with our human terrorism, but I think humans really cannot produce something like SARS or avian flu. We should be humble in front of this pretty enormous ecosystem, and have respect for the total ecology."

SARS put Peiris in a limelight he hadn't expected when he first came to the then British colony in 1995 to head up Hong Kong University's human infectious disease unit.

"I thought I would be here for a couple of years and then maybe do something else interesting someplace else," he says, then gives a little laugh. "It's been an interesting few years since then."

At 56, the Oxford-educated doctor heads a 45-researcher team that is part of a network of just five labs worldwide -- the others are in Britain, Japan, the United States and Australia -- that gets suspected bird flu cases from the WHO.

Tissue samples are sent from all over the world. Most recently, his lab identified H5N1 as the strain that killed 14 people in Indonesia.

If a pandemic hits, it's this network of labs that will be consulted before the WHO presses the alarm button and urges affected nations to begin quarantine and other containment measures.

"This is what we have been working on for eight or nine years," he says. "This is something of great professional and personal interest, and we try to do what we can to contribute to this total effort. We are under no illusion that one person can do it."

-- 'Controlling an outbreak is easier said than done' --

The SARS episode brought home to Hong Kong -- and Peiris -- just how catastrophic a bird flu outbreak could be and just how complicated it would be to prepare for a pandemic.

One of the toughest nuts to crack, the microbiologist believes, is communicating the threat to the general population.

The response to SARS was panic. Frightened citizens fled to supermarkets and depleted entire stocks of basic necessities on the same day that a hoaxer announced the city had been declared a quarantine port.

The response to the bird flu threat has been no better, says Peiris.

"Something that I'm acutely conscious of is the communication problem -- it seems extremely difficult to communicate proportionate risk to the public," he says.

"The media don't get it right most of the time -- they warn of one extreme or another. It's either grabbing the headlines or it's below the radar screen."

The WHO has been attacked from various quarters for taking an alarmist view of the pandemic threat. The worst-case scenario it has predicted is 100 million killed by the disease.

But Peiris backs his UN-linked associates, saying that unless the threat is made in such terms, few people will take any notice.

"To be fair, the WHO has been saying this for many years -- long before H5N1 came along -- that preparation plans have to be developed and that we are all ill-prepared for a pandemic.

"We're totally lucky that there has not been an outbreak so far because there is not one country that is even remotely prepared for even a mild pandemic. The fact is that, even if we had a vaccine today, the global vaccine production capacity wouldn't be remotely sufficient to make enough for everyone who needs it.

"Because of this, it has required the sort of 'hype' we have seen to get governments and politicians to take notice. Giving a proportionate message got no response until they went a little bit over top."

The fact that the disease is found within poultry flocks -- the basis of many nations' agricultural sectors -- has made some governments reluctant to face up to the problem, says Peiris.

But with human lives at stake, the political pressure on Peiris and his team to deliver results is huge.

The scientist sighs as he talks of the problem being not so much a challenge for microbiology but for governments and cultures. In this regard, he feels his hands are tied.

"Much of what has to be done is beyond what we can do -- we are talking multinational issues here. Controlling an outbreak is easier said than done," he says.

At least HK is well prepared for this compared to other countries around Asia!

HK has a much better health infrastructure than its poorer neighbors, but there isn't much that can be done to curb a disease that has no vaccine or direct medication.

Well the best thing right now is stay fit and avoid having contact with poultry.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure :)

Second bird with suspected H5N1
28 January 2006
South China Morning Post

Backyard farmers in the northern New Territories are being asked to eat their chickens over the New Year holiday or hand them over to authorities, after the discovery of a second native bird suspected to have H5N1 bird flu.

The oriental magpie robin was found near a village house in Shataukok on Thursday, and quick tests conducted showed the presence of an H5 flu strain. Tests for H5N1 are being carried out. An oriental magpie robin found dead in Tai Po on January 9 had H5N1.

Deputy Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Lau Sin-pang said if H5N1 had killed the second bird, this would show the virus existed in the local environment.

The robin is native to Hong Kong and a wide swathe of South and East Asia. It is often kept as a pet.

A family of seven living in the house near where the bird was found show no flu symptoms, but will be monitored.

Ten chicken farms within a 5km radius were checked. Households raising chickens for their personal use were visited and advised to have them vaccinated or surrender them to the department, Mr Lau said. Those who refuse were advised to eat their birds as soon as possible.

Medical tests for 13 in village bird flu scare

Thirteen people in Hong Kong are under medical surveillance after a wild bird that died of a suspected H5 influenza strain was found in a village hut in an area bordering Shenzhen.

Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Saturday, January 28, 2006

Thirteen people in Hong Kong are under medical surveillance after a wild bird that died of a suspected H5 influenza strain was found in a village hut in an area bordering Shenzhen.

The Centre for Health Protection is examining six frontline staff from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and seven family members who own the village house and hut where the bird was found. However, none had any symptoms of disease, said AFCD deputy director Lau Sin-pang Friday night.

An Oriental magpie robin was found Thursday in the privately owned hut near a village house in Sheung Wo Hang Tsuen, Lau said.

A preliminary test "indicated a suspected case of H5 avian influenza" and "further confirmatory tests were being conducted," he said. It was not immediately known whether the robin had the deadly H5N1 strain.

The move comes about a week after another wild bird in the territory became the first in a year to test positive for the deadly H5N1 avian flu strain.

Lau said officials were inspecting 14 poultry farms within five kilometers of where the latest bird was found to see if the virus has spread. Surveillance of wild birds in the area has also been stepped up.

"If H5N1 avian influenza virus was confirmed to be found in this Oriental magpie robin it might be an indication that the virus exists in the natural environment," Lau said.

Lau stressed the department would maintain frequent inspections on poultry farms to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza had been implemented and "there is no abnormal mortality and the chickens show no symptoms of avian influenza."

Commenting on the rare medical surveillance, David Hui, professor of medicine at Chinese University of Hong Kong said: "This is a proactive move for the government to examine if there is an effective transmission between human and wild bird."

Hui said the spreading of virus among wild bird is "not uncommon especially during the winter," adding it would not be surprising if more isolated cases were discovered soon.

"The key is to avoid the spread of virus in a wider area," Hui explained.

Lau advised backyard poultry owners to contact his department through the government's 1823 hotline if they decide to surrender or vaccinate their chickens.

"They should consider giving up backyard farming if biosecurity measures are found inadequate," Lau said. "Any suspicious outbreak of disease among their birds or their neighbors' birds, or significant increase in mortality should be reported to the AFCD immediately.

"We also strongly advise the public not to set free their pet birds as their chance of survival in the wild is minimal."

He reminded the public to observe good personal hygiene, to avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and to clean hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them.

In response to the January 10 discovery of H5N1 in a dead robin, Hui said the latest discovery might reinforce the call for reviewing the surveillance system.

Bird flu scare over smuggled poultry:
3 in hospital Border villagers ate a chicken they had housed with another that died of H5N1
2 February 2006
South China Morning Post

Three people from a village near the border were in hospital isolation last night being tested for bird flu after having eaten a chicken, smuggled in from the mainland, that had been housed with another that died of the H5N1 virus.

The news fuelled fears of an outbreak among poultry on Hong Kong's doorstep in Guangdong, as preliminary tests showed another wild bird was infected with the deadly virus.

The government closed all public aviaries and the Mai Po Nature Reserve and ordered all households within 5km of the affected village in Shataukok to surrender their chickens for culling.

A 42-year-old man, his 78-year-old mother and 39-year-old cousin, from Yuen Tuen Shan village, ate the chicken - which had been housed with the infected fowl, also smuggled in from the mainland - in a Lunar New Year meal on Monday.

The infected chicken fell ill and died hours later and the family reported it to the government hotline, Centre for Health Protection consultant Thomas Tsang Ho-fai said.

The three, who are in Princess Margaret Hospital, have been given the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Preliminary results of tests for H5N1 are expected today.

Health officials said the man had "increasing tear flow" and the cousin had a runny nose, but the mother had no symptoms.

The man told the Centre for Health Protection a relative had brought the infected chicken from Guangdong, from an "unknown source", on January 26. The other had been brought from elsewhere in Guangdong by the mother, but the date was not clear.

Meanwhile a crested mynah, found dead in a playground in Muk Lun Street, Wong Tai Sin, tested positive for H5N1 - the first time bird flu has been found in an urban area since the last outbreak among New Territories farm chickens in 2003. It was the third case of bird flu in wild birds since an oriental magpie robin was found dead in Tai Po early last month.

The incidents prompted the closure from today of Mai Po Nature Reserve, Ocean Park aviaries, and aviaries at Hong Kong Park and Yuen Long parks. Aviaries in the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens and Kowloon Park will be cordoned off.

Preliminary tests on the chicken and crested mynah showed H5N1 and tests to confirm the findings were being conducted, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department acting assistant director Thomas Sit Hon-chung said.

He could not say how the chicken were smuggled into Hong Kong, saying the Customs and Excise Department was usually vigilant. The village is just half a kilometre from the border, inside the closed area.

Dr Tsang said the centre had liaised with Guangdong health officials, who said they knew of no human or chicken cases of H5N1.

"Over 10 provinces on the mainland have reported H5N1 but so far Guangdong has not reported any outbreaks. We contacted our counterparts to see whether there are any human cases and we got the answer there are none," he said.

Dr Sit said it was unknown where the Shataukok chicken became infected.

Veterinarian Anthony James, a member of the Advisory Council on Food Safety, said the government should take firmer action against backyard chicken farmers, as they did in the 1980s to eradicate rabies.

"[Vets] grabbed every dog and had them vaccinated. They took a heavy-handed approach, went through all villages and did not depend on voluntary surrender."

Wan Wo-fai, a district councillor for Shataukok, said it was likely the chicken got sick in Hong Kong. "I visited the household. It is on a small hill with several huts and the area is filled with bird droppings."

Additional reporting by Felix Chan

BBC News:
Hong Kong watch over bird flu (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4669798.stm)

I'm still not gonna eat chicken!

I'm still not gonna eat chicken!

Don't be afraid to eat chickens! All the chickens you eat in HK ARE HEALTHY!!! :D :D :D

Don't be afraid to eat chickens! All the chickens you eat in HK ARE HEALTHY!!! :D :D :D

Then I'll be eating Buffalo Wings tonight :D There's this place in Manila that has good spicy wings :D

3 in Hong Kong Test Negative for Bird Flu
Feb. 2, 2006

HONG KONG - Three Hong Kong residents who came in contact with an infected chicken smuggled from China tested negative for bird flu but remained isolated at a hospital Thursday pending further tests.

Hong Kong has found bird flu in dead wild birds in recent weeks but the disease has not previously been detected in chicken — a staple of local cuisine. Experts say chickens with bird flu are a greater threat to humans than sick wild birds because poultry populations are bigger and interact more with people.

A local resident, his mother and his sister recently ate a chicken from a relative in neighboring Guangdong province in mainland China, officials said. The chicken was housed with another bird that later tested positive for the virus, officials said.

Preliminary tests showed the three tested negative for bird flu, the Health Department said in a statement. Further tests were being conducted.

Hong Kong officials said it was unclear whether the sick chicken was infected in Hong Kong or on the mainland. Poultry from the mainland can only be imported into Hong Kong from designated poultry farms in China and have to go through quarantine checks and be certified healthy for consumption.

Hong Kong bird flu finds raise new fears about China reporting

HONG KONG, Feb 2, 2006 (AFP) - Suspicions that China is not fully declaring data on bird flu resurfaced Thursday after two more cases were discovered in Hong Kong -- one of them in a chicken smuggled from a part of the mainland declared free of H5N1.

The chicken, a gift to a family that lives in a village in a no-man's land strip on the Hong Kong-Chinese border, was said by officials to have been bought in southern Guangdong province.

However, the head of Hong Kong's Centre for Health protection Thomas Tsang said Chinese officials had last week sworn that the province was virus-free.

"We visited before Chinese New Year and ... (an official) informed us there were no cases of H5N1," Tsang told reporters.

World health and food experts tracking the disease, which has killed some 85 people since exploding across Asia in 2003, believe the emergence of bird flu in Hong Kong suggests there are holes in China's reporting procedure.

"I'm not so sure it's a problem of the central government; it's more one of the local governments," said Guo Faosheng, technical adviser to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) mission in China.

"The central government is being open, we think, but the local governments have different interests to protect. That's where the problem with reporting is happening," Guo added.

He said local officials were reluctant to report all bird flu cases, as they feared a drop in either business investments or tourist numbers in their respective regions should a serious outbreak be detected.

"Alternatively, they may simply not realise they have bird flu -- in areas that have been vaccinated, the disease would still be present even if birds were not falling sick," he added.

The incident has rekindled memories of China's cover-up in 2003 of the extent of an outbreak of the then unknown pneumonia-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Medical experts say the reluctance of Chinese authorities to admit to the presence of SARS hindered efforts to identify and ultimately stop a worldwide outbreak that claimed almost 800 lives, 10 percent of the 8,000 infected.

China was also accused of playing down and being too slow to react to bird flu when it first emerged on the mainland.

Subsequent censure by the European Union and the the World Health Organisation (WHO) has pulled the country's health chiefs into line.

However, experts have privately expressed concern that authorities sometimes lapse into their old ways. For instance, they criticised a media blackout when H5N1 was discovered among birds at Qinghai Lake in northern China last May.

International health experts concede that the vastness of China and its largely primitive infrastructure make it difficult for authorities to monitor every part of the country for bird flu outbreaks.

However, they also feel obliged to temper their criticism out of fear of being expelled by an over-sensitive regime that rarely brooks censure.

Nonetheless, WHO officials say that by comparison to China's earlier behaviour, matters are now far more satisfactory.

"I think they learned their lesson after SARS," the WHO's China spokeswoman Aphaluk Bhatiasevi told AFP earlier.

"The government has realised that this issue is a big problem," Bhatiasevi added.

I'm in The Philippines right now and there are no bird-flu cases here except one chicken that got infected in a farm north of Manila last year. But even SARS did not hit here!

Chicken cull flops,exposing loophole
Only 10 of 210 backyard birds targeted are handed over
3 February 2006
South China Morning Post

A government attempt to destroy all backyard chickens reared in Shataukok met with little success yesterday, exposing a loophole through which H5N1 bird flu could continue to spread among poultry kept near the border.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department called on backyard farmers in 26 villages within a 5 sq km quarantine area of Yuen Tuen Shan village to hand in their poultry voluntarily.

On Wednesday, H5N1 was detected in preliminary tests on a chicken brought from the mainland on January 26 to a family in Yuen Tuen Shan. The chicken fell ill on Tuesday and died.

Yesterday, only 10 out of the 210 chickens targeted in the operation were collected.

While the voluntary calls for surrender proved barely effective, Democratic Party legislator Fred Li Wah-ming, chairman of the Legislative Council's food safety panel, said the government would fast-track a legislative amendment requiring licences for people keeping any number of chickens.

The amendment would be presented to the special panel meeting on Tuesday, Mr Li said.

"The problem is these backyard farms can raise poultry without any licence. The government can do nothing and cannot even confiscate [poultry]. The villagers are resisting the call to surrender them voluntarily. Maybe they prefer to eat their own chicken," he said.

Mr Li and other Democratic Party members will today meet Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok to raise their concerns over the role of backyard farming in the spread of bird flu. The plan to regulate backyard farms was announced last November, but it has gained urgency in the past two weeks.

In Man Uk Pin, 5km from Yuen Tuen Shan and 1.4km from Sheung Wo Hang Tsuen, where an oriental magpie robin was discovered last Friday and later found to be infected with H5N1, chickens were running free yesterday and some were being kept near other birds.

Lee Lap, 66, who was keeping 29 chickens, 20 pigeons and three ducks very close to each another, refused to listen to government advice to hand in his chickens, even though his son had signed a consent form.

"Asking me to give up my chickens is like asking me to give up my sons," he said. "I paid for their food and raised them. Of course, I won't let the government take them away without any compensation.

"Even if the government is paying me only $1 for one chicken, I can get $1 at least for each one I have raised."

But Mr Lee's chicken flock was confiscated yesterday after he was found to have violated the law stating that farmers keeping more than 20 chickens must apply for a licence.

Wong Yung-kan, the legislator representing the agriculture and fisheries sector, said the government should focus on tackling smuggled poultry through Shataukok as it was an obvious source for H5N1 bird flu affecting Hong Kong poultry.

From News.gov.hk:
Domestic poultry-keeping to be outlawed (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060203/html/060203en05004.htm)

From RTHK News:
Bird flu warning (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060204&56&285807)

From News.gov.hk:
Household bird-keeping ban imminent (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060204/html/060204en05004.htm)

Testing of dead birds stepped up (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060204/html/060204en05002.htm)

Fifth bird found with suspected avian flu in Hong Kong

HONG KONG, Feb 4, 2006 (AFP) - Preliminary tests have indicated that a magpie found dead in Hong Kong was infected with bird flu, the government said Saturday, in what would be the fifth case detected in two weeks in the city.

Experts were to conduct further tests on the magpie, found in the mainly rural New Territories bordering mainland China, to confirm whether it died of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, agriculture officials said in a statement.

Bird flu has killed some 85 people in Asia since 2003. Experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible by humans, sparking a pandemic.

The first known cases of H5N1 in humans were recorded in Hong Kong in 1997 when six people died. Authorities culled more than two million poultry in a response that was widely praised internationally.

Three people who came in contact with a chicken that died of bird flu were hospitalized in Hong Kong earlier this week, but tested negative for the virus.

危機不斷升級 隨時擴散全港
禽流喜鵲殺入深井
05/02/2006
太陽報

http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/news/20060205/img/sn05020504_big.jpg
漁護署巡查隊昨晨首先在鹿頸搬走戶主自願交出的四隻母雞。

http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/news/20060205/img/sn05020501a_big.jpg
漁護署職員在屯門銀圍休憩處檢拾死鴿屍體。

http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/news/20060205/img/sn05020503_big.jpg
在坪輋洲路的居民寧把雞隻屠宰，也不願交給漁護署帶走。

禽流雀殺入深井，令本港在不足一個月的時間內，接連發現五隻野鳥和走私雞帶有禽流感病毒。最新懷疑帶有H5病毒的喜鵲在深井青龍頭圓墩村發現，連同早前發現的個案，最少有三種本地留鳥被發現帶病毒。微生物學專家指出，愈來愈多品種的雀鳥染病，反映禽流感危機正不斷升級，病毒甚至可能已隨雀鳥飛行擴散至全港，威脅市民的危機亦愈來愈大。

漁農自然護理署在本月二日接獲市民報告，遂派員到位於深井大型私人屋苑浪翠園旁的圓墩村，檢走一隻已呈病態的喜鵲，送到該署新界北動物管理中心，翌日死亡，禽流感快速測試顯示其感染H5病毒。該署已即時派人到死雀五公里範圍內的一個雞場巡查，未發現有異常死雞或禽流感症狀。至於早前在沙頭角檢獲的走私雞和黃大仙的八哥屍體，已證實帶有H5N1病毒。

喜鵲為鴉科鳥類，全長約四十五厘米，羽毛大致呈藍黑色，肩及腹部為白色。自然保育顧問詹肇泰指出，喜鵲屬留鳥，於本土繁殖及生長，除了經常在鄉郊地區出沒之外，與較早前被證實帶有H5N1禽流感病毒的八哥及鵲鴝一樣，常見於市區的大型公園，容易為市民接觸。

留鳥互傳病毒
生署生防護中心顧問醫生曾浩輝說，近期接連發現帶有禽流感的禽鳥，顯示野鳥染病的風險提高，因此未來監察候鳥的工作最為重要，「禽流感版圖愈愈大，大圍風險增加，預測候鳥身上變化係個大挑戰。」他又稱，沙頭角發現染病走私雞後，已知會廣東省生廳官員，雙方正追蹤雞隻的來源及接觸過死雞的人，暫時未有進一步資料。

對於本港在不足一個月內發現五宗禽鳥帶病毒的個案，且由新界東北慢慢轉到人口較密集的九龍中及新界西。港大感染及傳染病中心副總監何良稱，病毒已在本港留鳥間互相傳播，再發現個案是意料中事，並估計會陸續有來，受影響的雀鳥品種和地區亦會不斷增加，令禽流感爆發的危機不斷「升級」。

昨檢逾50雀屍
何良強調，各地至今雖未發生禽流感由雀鳥直接傳人個案，但此危機其實存在，惟本港人稠密，情況與其他地區不一樣，「市民如果以為雀對人唔構成風險就好危險」，呼籲市民千萬別接觸野鳥，而在家養雀的市民，則應確保雀鳥只在籠內活動，以免與其他雀鳥接觸染病。他又促當局加強監察雀鳥及家禽的狀況，並透過立法和育，勸喻市民不要私自飼養家禽。

在禽流感的陰影籠罩下，雀鳥屍體即令市民變成驚弓之鳥。昨日本港多處均發現雀屍，包括大角咀、屯門、何文田及尖沙咀等。漁護署昨日共檢獲五十多隻雀鳥屍體，正進行禽流感測試，而日前在黃大仙下龍華樓發現的雀屍，則證實沒有帶禽流感病毒。

From News.gov.hk:
Bird flu preventive measures strengthened (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060206/html/060206en05009.htm)

RTHK News:
HK-Shenzhen agree measures to combat bird flu
2006-02-07 HKT 00:19

Hong Kong and Shenzhen are to slaughter all chickens within a five kilometre radius of any confirmed outbreak of bird flu. They announced the measure following a meeting between the Health Secretary, York Chow, and Shenzhen quarantine officials. Dr Chow said the government may consider lowering the number of chickens imported into Hong Kong if more cases of avian flu occur.


Another wild bird confirmed with H5N1
2006-02-07 HKT 00:30

The government's confirmed that another wild bird has tested positive for the H5N1 virus. The sick Common Magpie was found in Sham Tseng last Thursday and died the next day. It's the fifth bird found locally to test positive for the disease in recent weeks.

Smugglers ignoring poultry peril
Leslie Kwoh
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Hong Kongers continue to sneak in poultry from across the border, disregarding mainland bird flu outbreaks and frustrating SAR border surveillance.

The Customs and Excise Department revealed Monday that from February 1 to 5, it seized 82 kilograms of illicit chicken and other poultry meat - such as ducks and geese - and two live chickens at the border.

Smuggling has continued even though early last week three villagers in the New Territories were placed under medical observation after coming in contact with an illicit chicken smuggled in from the mainland that died from the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian virus. Customs Monday announced that to prevent bird flu from spreading to the SAR, it had stepped up surveillance along the border since October, in an exercise codenamed Operation Eagle.

In January it netted 1,567kg of poultry meat and two live chickens at the border.

Since the operation commenced in October, 212 people have been detained for further investigation after their goods were confiscated.

The department would not reveal how many of the cases proceeded beyond that.

"Frontline customs officers have been put on high alert and examination of suspicious imported cargo and baggage has also been increased," Assistant Commissioner (Boundary and Ports) Chow Kwong said Monday.

But the scare involving the three Sha Tau Kok villagers - who have since tested negative for bird flu antibodies - has raised questions about the effectiveness of the governme
nt's increased boundary protection, the first line of defense in preventing avian flu from entering Hong Kong.

The department spokeswoman Monday acknowledged that public awareness remains a problem, adding that the majority of illegal poultry seized at the border continues to come from individuals who try to hide the contents inside personal luggage.

"We think there is still local demand," the spokeswoman said, "and we want to remind the public to be extra cautious and that there are consequences for their actions."

An Agence France-Presse report last week cited a border police source saying small-scale smuggling would be nearly impossible to stamp out.

"It's a gray area - many people cross the border and sometimes they bring in small amounts of illegal things," the source said. "We cannot stop all of them."

Elaborating on the SAR's attempt to clip poultry smuggling, Kwong Monday said that the department had increased "intelligence exchange" with the mainland, as well as the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.

A department spokeswoman later said "intelligence exchange" between Hong Kong and the mainland entailed each side tipping off the other in cases involving suspected smuggling of poultry.

If a transport vehicle carrying poultry from Hong Kong to the mainland fails to stop for inspection at the border, for example, Hong Kong customs will notify mainland authorities immediately. The mechanism has been employed successfully on several occasions, she said.

The special operation also targeted public awareness by putting up posters and broadcasting television announcements about the dangers of smuggling live poultry.

Regulations stipulate it is an offense to bring into Hong Kong any live, chilled or frozen meat and poultry without an import license or official certificate, and any live bird without a valid health certificate.

While bringing in cooked poultry is still legal for now, the spokeswoman strongly advised against it.

Vaccine rethink urged as 4 types of H5N1 found
Tests on wild birds show virus endemic in S China for decade
7 February 2006
South China Morning Post

The H5N1 bird flu has been endemic in southern China, including Hong Kong, for almost 10 years - and the deadly virus exists in healthy birds, an international team of flu experts has found.

The findings of the groundbreaking study of samples from more than 13,000 migratory birds suggest a new strategy is needed for warding off a global bird flu pandemic.

The team of 29 scientists, including University of Hong Kong virologists, warns the development of a single vaccine is a red herring and bird flu must be controlled at its source.

A lone vaccine is no protection because the virus has developed into four distinct gene "families", says the report, published online today in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study suggests the virus has probably been endemic in Fujian , Guangdong, Guangxi , Guizhou , Hunan , Yunnan and Hong Kong since 1996, when a single Guangdong goose virus was found. The long-term presence adds greatly to the risk of a pandemic.

"The best approach to avert the threat is to control H5N1 infection at its source - domestic poultry. Control of this regional epizootic and its attendant pandemic threat requires that the source of virus in southern China be contained," it says.

One of the researchers, Robert Webster, of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee, told the South China Morning Post the detection of H5N1 in native birds and a backyard chicken in Hong Kong should come as no surprise.

"Four different families of H5N1 have been isolated from healthy birds in [southern] China. My interpretation of that is that serious surveillance will have to be done."

He said the detection of H5N1 in Hong Kong recently meant it was "still there in apparently normal and healthy birds" across the border.

Dr Webster said there were three possible reasons that birds remained healthy even with the virus: the mainland is using H5 vaccine that is not totally protecting the chickens, there might be a non-pathogenic virus circulating, or there is cross-protection from another subtype of influenza. This happened in Hong Kong's wet markets in the 1997 outbreak when the chickens did not die.

A total of 13,115 specimens of waste from migratory birds were collected during the past three winter seasons in Mai Po Marshes in Hong Kong and Poyang Lake in Jiangxi . Both are major overwintering sites for migratory birds from September to April.

To examine the evolution and ecology of the viruses in Asia, they sequenced 60 viruses isolated on the mainland since January last year and 59 viruses isolated in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam between August 2003 and May 2005.

All four major "families" or genotypes - Z, V, W in Indonesia, and the so-called Mekong delta type - arose from the single Guangdong goose virus detected in 1996. Z continues to be dominant in Asia.

Dr Webster, who is also director of the World Health Organisation's Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, said domestic poultry and migratory birds were both important in H5N1's spread.

The report says the current outbreak of bird flu originated in apparently healthy geese, ducks and chickens in the region, before infecting migratory ducks wintering at Poyang Lake in southeast China.

The ducks, which remained healthy after being infected, travelled to Qinghai Lake, where the virus killed thousands of water birds last April, then spread west to Xinjiang , Tibet , Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Turkey, Croatia and Romania.

The virus was introduced to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, through poultry movement in 2003-2005. The Mekong delta virus was found to be closely related to domestic and migratory birds that died in Hong Kong in 2002-03.

From News.gov.hk:
Household poultry ban to take effect Feb 13 (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060207/html/060207en05002.htm)

From News.gov.hk:
Household poultry ban gazetted (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060208/html/060208en05001.htm)

RTHK News:
Site where dead bird found to be cleaned
2006-02-08 HKT 13:06

Government workers have been sent to clean up the site in Tuen Mun where the dead chicken was found. One worker we spoke to admitted to having thrown away the diseased bird without informing the authorities last week. It's believed that another witness had reported the case to the authorities. The worker also said she's seen at least two other live chickens running around the area, and believes nearby fisherman had let them loose.


Tuen Mun on high alert over bird flu scare
2006-02-08 HKT 13:07

Tuen Mun remains on high alert after a new bird flu scare. The government has expressed concern over the discovery of a dead chicken, infected with the H5 bird flu virus, in a Tuen Mun street. The Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Carrie Yau told RTHK's Betsy May Veloo that people who develop flu-like symptoms after contact with chickens in the Tuen Mun area should contact a doctor immediately.

From News.gov.hk:
Proper disposal of poultry urged (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060208/html/060208en05008.htm)

Warning after new bird death
Winnie Chong and Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Thursday, February 09, 2006

Health chief York Chow has warned the territory to be ready for a bird flu outbreak after yet another wild bird was found dead from a likely infection of the H5 strain of the virus.

Speaking Wednesday after addressing a Legco panel about an emergency proposal to ban backyard poultry farming, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Chow said: "We have to heighten our alert in terms of protection of our citizens against the avian flu."

He made the comment shortly before the government announced that a preliminary test on a Japanese Whiteeye found dead in the Diocesan Boys' School, Mong Kok, Monday "has indicated a suspected case of H5 avian influenza." A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said further tests on the bird are underway.

The spokesman also disclosed that a series of tests on a Little Egret found in Tuen Mun earlier confirmed that, as suspected, it had the H5N1 virus.

Compounding concerns, Chow admitted during the Legco meeting Wednesday that the administration had no idea how a dead H5N1-infected chicken ended up in the streets of Tuen Mun Tuesday night, speculating that it may have been disposed of by a resident keeping chickens in a backyard.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Carrie Yau said the area is on high alert and urged anybody who thought they might have bird flu symptoms to go straight to hospital.

Sparking worries that the government doesn't have a grip on the situation, an unnamed Tuen Mun resident told an ATV reporter that he frequently saw live chickens left in Tuen Mun and he believed that the dead chicken was disposed of after a Taoist ceremony.

In a sign of the fear gripping the city, and the effectiveness of the awareness campaign, more than 100 birds were reported to the government Wednesday - though all were confirmed to be H5 free.

Chow - who said that so far the situation doesn't require the culling of all the territory's poultry -urged people holding live poultry to immediately surrender their birds to the government ahead of next Monday's implementation of a ban on backyard poultry farming.

Currently, people are permitted to keep up to 20 live poultry birds without a special permit.

"[Such chickens] have a very high risk of catching the virus if they are in contact with other migratory birds," Chow said, because they aren't protected in the same way poultry are in regulated farms.

Chow's remark referred to the dead chicken as well as another two live egrets infected with H5N1 which were picked up in Wu Tai Circuit, Tuen Mun, last Saturday, one day after a dead egret also found nearby tested positive for the deadly strain in preliminary tests. Five other birds with the H5N1 strain have been found dead in recent weeks.

Chow said the risk of bird flu in the territory is higher than before, but it is still under control.

He emphasized that, if one chicken with H5N1 is found in a chicken farm, all chickens in farms within a five kilometer radius will be culled. "Of course, we do not want this to happen, but we should prepared psychologically," Chow said

Microbiologist Lo Wing-lok said that since chickens are flightless, they pose a higher risk of infecting humans with the deadly virus. "Because they walk they have a higher chance of being in contact with people and spreading the virus," Lo said.

In the past year, Hong Kong officials have found bird flu in many species, including crested mynahs, herons and magpies.

Meanwhile, a Hong Kong toddler aged 20 months tested negative in a preliminary test after returning from the mainland with bird flu-like symptoms. He remains under medical observation.

But a medical expert said that the preliminary test was not conclusive. "A viral culture will still be necessary, even if the preliminary test is negative," said Hong Kong University microbiology department Assistant Professor Samson Wong. He added that a result from the viral culture may take up to two weeks. Hong Kong's last major bird flu outbreak in 1997 killed six people and prompted the government to slaughter all the territory's 1.5 million poultry birds. In 2003, two more people in the territory died of the H5N1 virus.

New suspected bird flu case in Hong Kong

HONG KONG, Feb 9, 2006 (AFP) - Initial testing of a wild bird found dead in Hong Kong showed it was infected with the H5 strain of bird flu, the government said Thursday.

Further confirmatory tests are being conducted on the Japanese white-eye, discovered in a school yard in the busy Mong Kok shopping district of the southern Chinese territory.

So far, health officials have confirmed that six birds found dead in Hong Kong were infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. Experts were conducting additional tests on a chicken suspected of having the disease.

The government has said it will ban backyard poultry farming in the territory after a bird flu-infected chicken was smuggled into Hong Kong last week and given to a villager as a gift.

The chicken later died and three members of the villager's family were put in hospital isolation for tests, which subsequently proved negative.

Bird flu has killed at least 85 people since 2003 in outbreaks that have ravaged Asia and are now menacing eastern Europe.

Hong Kong's last major bird flu outbreak in 1997 killed six people, prompting the government to slaughter all the city's 1.5 million poultry. Two more people died here of the deadly virus in 2003.

From News.gov.hk:
Probe into dead birds launched (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060209/html/060209en05002.htm)

Abattoir site push in New Territories
Chester Yung of Hong Kong Standard and Agence France-Presse
Friday, February 10, 2006

With Hong Kong in a heightened state of alert against avian flu, health chief York Chow said the government is now looking for a suitable place in the New Territories to build a central poultry slaughterhouse.

The government Thursday also issued a special handbook on preventing bird flu to schools shortly after a second suspected H5N1-infected dead bird was found at the Diocesan Boys' School in Mong Kok.

"Parents can rest assured," Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li said.

The central slaughtering plan had first been mooted some time ago and was expected to come on line next year, but Chow hinted it would happen much sooner, promising to unveil details shortly.

The heightened alert follows confirmation that a dead bird found in an urban area earlier this week had tested positive for the H5N1 virus.

Since then more dead birds have appeared, including the two at the Mong Kok school yard.

The school's headmaster, Terence Chang, said precautionary measures have been put in place.

The education bureau's new handbook, which builds on a memorandum the government distributed last year, highlights the need for schools to keep live birds off school premises, to avoid taking students to activities that might expose them to live birds, and to stock face masks.

About 10 dead birds have tested positive for the virus recently.

An Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department spokesman said a dead egret found earlier this week in an urban area has tested positive for the H5N1 virus.

But test results on a dead chicken, a Japanese white-eye and a small wild bird found near the school were not yet available.

A red-whiskered Bulbul picked up Thursday is also being tested but has not yet been classified as a suspected case, the spokesman said.

Chow said the number of dead birds being submitted for testing has leapt to an average of 100 a day as people have become more aware of the danger and were reporting dead carcasses.

"In the past, the cleaners and the public would have just tossed the carcasses out," the spokesman said. "But because of this avian flu scare, people are now much more alert to dead birds."

The worldwide epidemic has already moved the government to introduce a plan banning backyard poultry farms from Monday, when it will also be illegal for anyone to take home a live chicken.

The decision to ban backyard poultry farming in the territory came after a chicken that was smuggled into Hong Kong died last week of bird flu. The chicken had been a gift to a villager.

Consequently, three members of the villager's family were quarantined and tested for bird flu. They all tested negative.

Bird flu has ravaged Asian poultry stocks in Asia since late 2003, killing or forcing the slaughter of millions of birds.

Ominously, it has spread westward to several European countries, and most recently to Africa.

In the current outbreak, bird flu has killed at least 88 people, mostly in Asia, although Hong Kong has been largely spared.

Its last big outbreak was in 1997, when bird flu killed six people in the territory, forcing the government to slaughter the entire 1.5 million chicken population.

Break-ins at homes to enforce ban
Winnie Chong
Hong Kong Standard
Saturday, February 11, 2006

Agriculture officers may break into private homes to seize chickens after a prohibition on domestic poultry farming comes into effect Monday, warned Stella Hung, director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
But rural officials worry the government has not given villagers enough time to eat or sell their poultry before the new ban comes into effect.

The threat Friday comes after villagers voluntarily surrendered just 240 chickens to AFCD officials, who visited 116 villages over the past week.

Most of those chickens were collected from a single settlement, Sha Tau Kok, near the border with Shenzhen.

Government officials estimate that more than 3,000 chickens are being raised in some 1,300 households in Hong Kong. The administration aims to collect and cull all such poultry over the next four to six weeks, but said it will not offer any compensation.

AFCD officers will patrol villages for poultry and cooperate with the police to obtain warrants for homes they believe contain chickens.

"Of course, we hope there will not be such a need," Hung said. "I hope people can understand that the law will come into effect Monday. [After that] you know you are subject to prosecution if we see a chicken."

The ban closes a loophole that has allowed people to keep up to 20 live chickens without need to seek a special poultry farming license. The government worries that these unregulated birds are an easy conduit for avian flu.

But leaders of the Heung Ye
e Kuk, the official rural advisory body, criticized the administration for rushing into action and violating tradition. They urged the administration to allow a grace period for villagers.

Kuk official Tang Kam-leung said the government has not promoted the ban adequately.

He said he is worried that older residents of remote villages may violate the law unknowingly.

Kuk vice chairman Daniel Lam, who is also a member of the Legislative Council, criticized the plan to collect poultry without compensating owners, noting that owners of chickens seized in a 1997 mass cull were paid.

He suggested some villagers will likely just release their chickens into the wild unless they receive compensation.

"There may be a great impact if chickens are released," he said. "There will be a greater chance the chickens contract the deadly H5N1 strain."

In 1997 some 1.2 million chickens were culled to control a bird flu outbreak. Between 1997 and 2004, the government paid out more that HK$272 million to farmers, wholesalers, retailers and transport companies affected by bird flu control measures, according to the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau.

Neighborhood farms were not included in earlier culls.

Vincent Liu, acting deputy secretary for health, welfare and food, said there will not be compensation because the government does not want to generate chicken smuggling.

Given the danger posed by bird flu, the government has to act quickly, he said, even if at a cost to some traditions.

Fred Li, Legco food safety and environmental hygiene panel chairman, agreed that the government was moving too fast on the backyard farming ban.

But given the risks involved, he said, he hopes the public can accept the measure.

The AFCD also announced Friday that the dead chicken found in Tuen Mun Saturday last week and the Japanese white-eye discovered at the Diocesan Boy's School in Mong Kok Monday were confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests, adding to the now almost daily tally of avian flu-infected bird fatalities found in the territory.

From News.gov.hk:
Birds flu riske on the rise (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060211/html/060211en05004.htm)

Two more birds H5N1-positive (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060211/html/060211en05002.htm)

From News.gov.hk:
Poultry keeping banned in public estates (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060211/html/060211en05006.htm)

RTHK News:
Poultry traders reject central slaughtering plan
2006-02-12 HKT 16:35

Local poultry traders say the central slaughtering of birds would not improve hygiene conditions. The chairman of the world poultry science association here, Peter Wong, said there would be just as many sanitation problems if chilled birds replaced live ones. He believes central slaughtering would not only wipe out the poultry industry, but also lead to the decline of wet markets.

From News.gov.hk:
82 birds seized as poultry ban starts (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060213/html/060213en05002.htm)

Backyard bird raiders strike
Winnie Chong
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/newsimage/20060214/chick.jpg

The government has claimed that the first day of enforcement of the ban on backyard poultry ruffled no feathers, but some chicken owners have organized, vowing not to surrender their beloved birds.
One woman even threatened to commit suicide rather than give up her ducks.

In an effort to stem the re-emergence of avian flu, about 200 Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department chicken hunters clad in protective clothing formed 40 teams and visited 95 villages and 6,000 households in North District of the New Territories Monday, seizing 71 chickens and 11 other banned birds from 12 households.

Authorities sterilized ground around homes where birds were found.

About 750 villages and 300 squatter areas will be inspected over the next six weeks.

Liu Kwei-kin, the department's assistant director, said no police were required to help workers enter villagers' homes. Last week the department warned it would use force to break into homes if bird-holding villagers did not cooperate.

But many chicken owners promised resistance. Twelve households that raise chickens at home formed an alliance to fight for the right to keep their pets.

A member, Ng Wu Mei-mei, who reared two chickens in Aberdeen, said she will fight for her chickens' lives.

"I think some people may say that I am fool. But my chickens are full of sensations and they also want to live," Ng said with tearful eyes, then kissed her rooster Ah Gai.

Southern District councillor Allan Shek, spokesman for the alliance, said he had received about 30 to 40 inquiries from chicken owners in the past week.

He urged the government to allow a grace period before enforcing the ban and asked that the HK$10,000 license fee be lowered.

Meanwhile, Sandy, a Lantau woman who asked that her surname not be used, has nine pet ducks aged eight to 10 and said that, although AFCD workers have not contacted her yet, she would rather kill herself than surrender her pets.

"I enjoy living in nature," she said. "The pets are part of the nature that I enjoy here.

"Besides, as I don't have children, I treat the ducks as my children. Why are my rights being exploited? Ducks also have a right to live."

She complained the government never consulted poultry owners about possible measures to isolate backyard birds from wild birds. She demanded it conduct a consultation on the matter and consider a smaller license fee.

"I will lose my joy in my life," she said. "If the government really kills my pets, they should kill me instead. Or I will kill myself."

AFCD's Liu said the seizures and killings were necessary as a preventive measure against the spread of avian flu.

"We understand that the public have some sentiment toward their poultry," Liu said. "We also hope that the public understands that members face risks to their family as well as to their community."

Angry villagers free hundreds of poultry
Winnie Chong
Hong Kong Standard
Friday, February 17, 2006

Villages in the western New Territories have revealed that they released hundreds of chicken into the wild ahead of the implantation of the backyard ban last Monday.

Lam Shue-wah from Yuen Long's Shan Pui Village, while accusing the administration of oppressing the public by not offering compensation for confiscated backyard poultry, disclosed that many of his angry neighbors had released about 200 chickens and ducks into the wild.

"We won't hand in our chickens," he maintained. "Why do we need to cooperate? The government did not offer compensation nor an apology. Why was there compensation for other chickens [culled] but not for us? It's double standards."

He was speaking outside a morning meeting of the Heung Yee Kuk - the traditional rural body - which was discussing the ban imposed to combat the threat of a bird flu outbreak by closing a loophole that allowed households to keep unregulated up to 20 poultry.

Kuk chairman Lau Wong-fat said the body will decide next week whether to seek a judicial review on the ban, for imposing on people's private property.

"The government should be reasonable," Lau said. "We want reasonable ways to solve the problem."

But a government source reiterated that its actions did not violate the Basic Law and it will not monetarily compensate farmers, but it might grant resources to improve the conditions of rural villages.

He also disclosed that so far, more than 200 people have applied for a pets license for poultry, that allows them to keep the birds as long as they follow prescribed safety measures to ensure they do not easily catch the virus from passing wild birds. But the source said since chickens have higher risk in spreading the disease, the possibility of issuing a license is low.

A health bureau spokeswoman said technically it is legal for people to release their birds, but recommended that instead people hand over their poultry to authorities, as the birds could end up spreading the virus.

P W Lee, from another Yuen Long village, said that about 30 of his neighbors also released more than 100 chickens Sunday, a day before the introduction of the backyard poultry ban.

At a Legislative Council hearing on the ban Thursday morning, Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Cheng accused the government of misallocating its resources by using many officials to check villages and confiscate chickens, but refusing to compensate the poultry owners.

He estimated it would only cost the city about HK$500,000.

Defending the government's decision, acting Deputy Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Vincent Liu said compensation was not offered because it might encourage people to smuggle in birds from China to trade in for the money.

All legislators on the Legco sub- committee reviewing the ban Thursday voted for a motion calling on the government to provide reasonable compensation to people affected.

While the ban is being argued over, the administration proposed Thursday to expand the regulation soon to include all birds that are consumed, including turkey.

Currently, "poultry" only means chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons and quails.

In order to lower the risk of bird flu, the government will discuss the long suggested central slaughtering plan in Legco next week.

The source said the government aims to rid all retail markets of live chicken within the next three years.

RTHK news:
Govt: backyard poultry poses high risk (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060217&56&288914)

又一村喜鵲屍
帶H5病毒
18/02/2006

http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/news/20060218/img/sn06021801_big.jpg

【本報訊】漁農自然護理署再驗出有野鳥屍體帶有H5禽流感毒。一隻帶病毒的喜鵲前日被市民發現暴屍於九龍塘又一村石竹路，漁護署職員期後到場檢走雀屍。當局提醒市民切勿接觸野鳥或家禽，尤其是禽鳥的屍體，若有發現應聯絡漁護署處理。

自上月接連發現有雀屍帶有禽流感病毒後，漁護署接受的轉介和檢獲的雀屍不斷增加，單在昨日便收集約一百隻雀屍。政府發言人表示，野鳥帶病毒是難以制止的情況，但社會必須做好防備，包括禁止散養後園雞，減低病毒透過家禽傳人的可能性。

漁護署昨晚表示，在本月十六日接獲市民報告，指在九龍塘石竹路發現一喜鵲屍體，該署職員檢走化驗，結果顯示喜鵲帶有H5禽流感病毒，現正作進一步測試以確定是否H5N1病毒。

禽流感的威脅下，漁護署昨日共檢獲近一百隻雀屍，有市民便在長沙灣長裕街與大南西街交界發現一隻灰白色鴿子的屍體，報警後警員到場用紙盒遮蓋雀屍，然後由漁護署人員檢走化驗。http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/img/endmarker.gif

A worth to read article from the BBC! ;)
Reality takes wing over bird flu--by Dr Leon Bennun, Director of Science, Policy and Information for BirdLife International (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4721598.stm)

Magpie tests positive for H5N1 in Hong Kong

An English version of the Chinese article in post #48 :

HONG KONG, Feb 18, 2006 (AFP) - A ninth bird has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza in Hong Kong, the government said Saturday.

The common magpie was found dead in densely-populated Sham Shui Po district Thursday, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said in a statement.

It said another magpie found dead in the neighbouring district of Mongkok was suspected of having H5, and that further tests were being carried out to see if it too had H5N1.

Officials inspected a nearby bird market but found nothing abnormal among the pet birds for sale.

The H5N1 strain has claimed at least 90 mostly Asian lives since late 2003 and has now spread to Africa and Europe.

A law banning chickens and ducks as pets came into force in Hong Kong Monday as the government stepped up efforts to suppress a brewing bird flu outbreak.

Agriculture department staff have been searching homes in villages throughout the territory's rural areas in what is expected to be a six-week programme to clear Hong Kong of an estimated 9,000 chickens and 3,500 ducks kept in homes.

The curb on so-called backyard farming was enacted last week following the discovery of eight birds and chickens that had died of the H5N1 virus.

Food and environmental hygiene officials on Friday seized about 1,000 live chickens and arrested a man in a raid on an illegal poultry slaughtering factory in a rural New Territories district.

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died of the then unknown scourge.

As the virus was quickly traced to chickens and ducks, the outbreak prompted the government to slaughter all the city's 1.5 million poultry.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a strain that could be transmitted easily among humans, circumstances that could cause a global pandemic that could kill millions of people.

Bird falls in, 300 cleared from pool
19 February 2006
South China Morning Post

Swimmers at a public pool in Wan Chai were given a first-hand lesson in vigilance against H5N1 flu when a bird flew into the water and staff ordered everyone out.

About 300 people were evacuated from the main pool at the Morrison Hill swimming complex, Oi Kwan Road, when the bird flew into the water at 2.15pm. Staff immediately picked it out and closed the indoor pool for cleaning for about four hours.

The bird, whose type was not known, was handed over alive to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. A department spokesman said last night they would test it for H5N1.

The scare came as the department confirmed a ninth bird, a common magpie found dead in Shamshuipo on Thursday, had tested positive for H5N1 and said initial tests on a magpie found dead on Friday in Mongkok indicated a suspected case of H5.

The bird was found at the junction of Boundary Street and Flower Market Path. Department officials inspecting stalls in the nearby Yuen Po Street bird garden yesterday found nothing abnormal among the pet birds for sale. A spokesman said they would keep a daily watch on stalls and raise the number of swab samples collected.

Kwok Ka-ki, legislator for the medical sector, said netting should be installed at all shops in Bird Street as an additional precaution. "We need more stringent measures so wild birds cannot mix with the pet birds being sold in Bird Street."

Infectious disease specialist Dr Lo Wing-lok appealed to people not to buy pet birds for the time being.

From News.gov.hk:
Mong Kok bird tested for avian flu (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060218/html/060218en05004.htm)

From News.gov.hk:
Central slaughtering plan ready in March (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060220/html/060220en05006.htm)

Report's anti-bird-flu advice heeded (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060220/html/060220en05011.htm)

Common Magpie positive for H5N1 (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060220/html/060220en05009.htm)

AFCD closely monitors Bird Garden stalls
Government Press Release
Monday, February 20, 2006

Pet bird stalls in Mong Kok’s Bird Garden are being closely monitored to prevent any outbreak of avian influenza among pet birds, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (February 20).

He said AFCD staff had found nothing abnormal despite daily inspections of stalls in the garden in Yuen Po Street.

“The stalls have been put under close surveillance. Collection of swab samples from the stalls has been increased to every three days from every five days,” the spokesman said.

“Traders and workers have been reminded to keep their stalls clean and to prevent contact between wild birds and the birds they have for sale,” the spokesman said.

More than 200 swab samples are collected from pet bird stalls, including those at Bird Garden, each month to test for avian flu viruses. So far, all results have been negative.

A special permit must be obtained from the AFCD to import live pet birds into Hong Kong. The department only issues permits to consignments from countries where there is no evidence or suspicion of highly pathogenic avian influenza being present.

The spokesman said birds to be imported must undergo at least 14 days pre-export quarantine and be tested for H5 and H7 during the quarantine period before shipment.

“The birds must be examined by an official veterinarian and certified as free of evidence of infectious disease before shipment,” he said.

The public should observe personal and environmental hygiene, and avoid contact with sick birds and their droppings. Guidelines on bird management are available on the AFCD website at www.afcd.gov.hk, including the following:

* Birds should be kept indoors in cages at all times to avoid any direct contact with outside birds.

* When taking pet birds out of the premises where they are kept, cover the bird cage properly with a piece of cloth.

* When touching the birds or handling their droppings, one should wear waterproof gloves, mask and work clothes (such as task-specific apron). Wash face and hands completely before and after such contact.

RTHK news:
Dead magpie found at Mong Kong tests positive for H5N1 virus 2006-02-21 HKT 00:33

Pet bird stalls in Mong Kok's Bird Garden are under closer surveilance after confirmation that a dead magpie found at the junction of Boundary Street and Flower Market Path was H5N1 infected. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department says it's so far found nothing abnormal despite daily inspections. More than 200 swab samples are collected from pet bird stalls each month to test for avian flu viruses. So far the results have been negative.

RTHK news:
Three more dead birds suspected to be carrying avian flu virus 2006-02-21 HKT 23:17

Tests on three birds found dead on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon over the weekend have revealed suspected cases of H5 avian influenza. A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department says further tests will be conducted to confirm the prelimiary findings. The dead birds included a Large-billed Crow, a Munia and a White-backed Munia.

From News.gov.hk:
Poultry rest day set for February 25 (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060223/html/060223en05002.htm)

From news.gov.hk:
More anti-crow measures set for Lai On Estate (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060223/html/060223en05005.htm)

From news.gov.hk:
Poultry keeping reprieve posed (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060224/html/060224en05003.htm)

RTHK news:
Common Magpie in Hong Kong tested for H5 virus 2006-02-26 HKT 01:07

Preliminary tests on a Common Magpie found dead in Southern District on Friday have indicated a suspected case of H5 avian influenza. A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said further confirmatory tests are being conducted. The bird's carcass was collected by AFCD staff on Island Road following a report made by a member of the public.

From news.gov.hk:
3 birds test positive for H5N1 (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060227/html/060227en05004.htm)

From news.gov.hk:
Poultry ban defended (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060228/html/060228en05005.htm)

From news.gov.hk:
APEC endorses bird flu work plan (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/businessandfinance/060302/html/060302en03010.htm)

RTHK News:
Chicken imports should be banned if there's H5N1 outbreaks (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060304&56&292310)

LCQ16: Dead birds carrying H5N1 avian influenza virus
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (March 8):

Question:

As some of the carcasses of dead birds recently collected in various districts have been confirmed to be carrying H5N1 avian influenza virus, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the details of such cases in the past three months, including the species of these birds, as well as when and where the carcasses were found;

(b) whether it will consider uploading the details of such cases onto the Government web-site with daily updates for public information; and

(c) of the names and locations of the existing public and private parks where birds are kept, and the respective numbers of birds by species in each of these parks; whether these birds are segregated from humans, and whether faecal testing for avian influenza virus is conducted regularly on these birds; if such testing is conducted, of the details?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) All the confirmed cases of H5N1 are listed in the Table.

(b) The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has uploaded to its website (http://www.afcd.gov.hk/news/news_e.htm) information on all H5 positive cases of dead birds collected. The information will be updated regularly. All press releases regarding the H5 positive cases have also been put on the AFCD web site.

(c) Testing of park birds has been an integral part of AFCD's extensive avian influenza (AI) surveillance and monitoring programme for many years. A total of about 200 faecal samples from recreational parks are routinely submitted to AFCD for AI testing every month. These parks include Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) parks (including Hong Kong Park, Kowloon Park, Tuen Mun Park, Yuen Long Park, Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens), Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden and Ocean Park. In 2005, a total of 2 871 samples were tested negative for highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

The LCSD manages four major parks, namely Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, Hong Kong Park, Kowloon Park and Yuen Long Park, which together kept around 1 500 birds (including 440 in the Zoological and Botanical Gardens, 630 in Hong Kong Park, 340 in Kowloon Park and 150 in Yuen Long Park). To prevent avian influenza, the Department has temporarily closed the aviaries of these four parks since February 2, 2006 in order to completely segregate the birds and park visitors. The flamingos and cranes kept in open sheds in the Zoological and Botanical Garden, flamingos and water fowls kept in the open bird lake of Kowloon Park as well as the black-necked swans kept in the open bird lake of Hong Kong Park have all been moved to closed cages or tents to avoid contact with wild birds.

The LCSD always keeps a close watch on health of these kept birds. The senior veterinary officers of the Department also closely monitor the health conditions of the birds kept in these four gardens. During their weekly inspections of these birds, samples of bird droppings are taken and sent to AFCD for tests on avian influenza to ensure their health.

March 11, 2006
Government Press Release
'Zero live chicken' policy impracticable

It is impracticable for Hong Kong to implement a 'zero live chicken' policy at this stage, Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Carrie Yau says, calling on the poultry sector to support preventive measures against bird flu.

Speaking on a radio talkshow today, Mrs Yau said the suspension of live chicken imports from the Mainland should not create any major problem for live poultry sellers, as there are more than two million live chickens still in Hong Kong.

The Government's preventive measures aim to maintain people's confidence in chicken consumption. Mrs Yau said preventive measures will ensure the poultry sector can continue to operate.

Mrs Yau said to protect public health, the local live chicken stock must be cut and the target is to cap it at two million, otherwise it would be difficult to destroy them promptly should an outbreak occur.

Central slaughtering

Mrs Yau said public support for central slaughtering is rising, and this is the direction of policy development, adding that Singapore and northern parts of the Mainland have implemented the measure.

Consideration of central slaughtering is not confined to site selection, it also involves legislative work, which is in progress.

On recent H5N1 cases involving mammals like cats, Mrs Yau said there is no cause for fear as the DNA of cats and humans is different. She called on people not to abandon their pet cats, but to avoid contact with stray cats and dogs.

On the voluntary return of licence scheme for local pig farms, Mrs Yau said works on getting more resources for ex-gratia allowances are on-going, and hoped the scheme can keep the number of pigs in Hong Kong to a minimum.

Centre for Health Protection Principal Medical & Health Officer Dr SK Chuang said Mainland and Hong Kong experts are trying to trace the source of the human H5N1 case in Guangzhou. She said the centre believes the source is from live poultry, as the victim stayed in a poultry market for a long period before falling ill.

Feral pigeons test negative for H5 virus
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Government Press Release

Preliminary testing of dead feral pigeons collected at the junction of Leighton Road and Wong Nai Chung Road found that none of them carried the H5 virus, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (March 14).

Eight dead pigeons were collected by AFCD staff yesterday following a public referral. Only four of them were suitable for testing.

"The chance of pigeons transmitting the virus is considered relatively low according to overseas experiences," the spokesman said.

He urged the public to observe good personal hygiene and avoid contact with wild birds and their droppings.

"Feeding of wild birds is highly undesirable. It will change their eating habits, attracting them to certain locations and creating an environmental nuisance," he added.

From News.gov.hk:
Talks on live poultry import to start soon (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060314/html/060314en05002.htm)

RTHK News:
York Chow keeps tight hold on chicken imports 2006-03-16 HKT 01:25

The Health Secretary, York Chow, says the number of mainland chickens imported to Hong Kong must remain tightly controlled, so long as the risk of bird flu remains high. Dr Chow said the number of imported birds will be kept at 20,000 a day once a ban on mainland imports is lifted later this month. But he said this figure may be revised when officials review the possible risks of a bird flu outbreak in April.


Chow rejects plea for more chicken imports 2006-03-16 HKT 08:02

Health authorities have rejected a plea from the local poultry industry to allow more mainland chickens into the territory. Speaking after a meeting with industry representatives, the Health Secretary, York Chow, said the number ofchickens sold here per day will be capped at 40,000 for safety reasons. Dr Chow said this figure could be further revised after authorities review the risk of an outbreak in April.

RTHK News:
Two out of three back centralised chicken slaughterhouse 2006-03-19 HKT 15:05

Two-thirds of the respondents to a survey have backed a proposal to introduce centralised slaughtering of chickens as soon as possible. An overwhelming majority of them have also urged the government to establish an inter-departmental taskforce on the H5N1 virus immediately. The survey by the H5N1 Concern Group interviewed around eight hundred people, who also gave the government a score of six out of ten points on handling possible bird flu outbreaks in future. The concern group comprises lawmakers including Albert Cheng, Albert Ho and former lawmaker representing the medical sector, Dr Lo Wing-lok.

From news.gov.hk:
Avian flu drill conducted smoothly (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060325/html/060325en05008.htm)

Chinese chickens back on sale in Hong Kong after bird flu halt

HONG KONG, March 27, 2006 (AFP) - Sales of live chickens imported from China resumed in Hong Kong Monday three weeks after imports were banned following another human bird flu death on the mainland, agriculture chiefs said.

The ban was imposed on March 6 after authorities confirmed the first human bird flu fatality in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong which neighbours Hong Kong.

Officials said 20,000 Chinese chickens, brought in over the weekend, had been cleared for sale.

They denied that a handful of the chickens which had arrived dead were suspected to have the deadly H5N1 virus, which has killed more than 100 people worldwide since late 2003.

"When you transport a large number of chickens over long distances some of them die of stress," a spokesman for the agriculture department said.

"Checks were carried out on the Chinese side and this side and everything is okay," he said.

Hong Kongers have traditionally bought chickens live and had them slaughtered, usually at the market, just prior to cooking.

The practice has been criticised for bringing people in close contact with poultry and has been blamed for aiding the spread of H5N1, which is believed to pass to humans through bird faeces and viscera.

The government has controversially decided to ban the sale of live chickens at such "wet markets" and open a central slaughtering centre to reduce public contact with birds.

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died. The government slaughtered all the city's 1.5 million poultry to contain the outbreak.

The last human cases in the city were in 2003, when two people were infected and one died. But 17 birds have tested positive for the disease in recent weeks.

Hong Kong to ban live poultry sales in three years

HONG KONG, March 30, 2006 (AFP) - Hong Kong will ban the sale of live poultry in markets within three years in a move aimed at averting an outbreak of deadly bird flu, the city's political leader said Thursday.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang told the legislature that while the territory was closely monitoring the spread of the H5N1 virus in China, it should also remain on guard for a possible outbreak at home.

"The threat of avian flu remains ... we will remain vigilant to protect ourselves from any outbreak of avian flu or any epidemic diseases," Tsang said during a fiery 90-minute exchange.

Bird flu has killed more than 100 people, mainly in East Asia, since outbreaks in 2003. Asians' fondness for poultry slaughtered just before cooking is thought to have contributed to its spread.

The plan would see a central slaughterhouse set up in the rural New Territories, from where chicken meat would be distributed to retail outlets.

It is hoped to reduce human contact with potentially infected bird waste by closing down the hundreds of stalls in public markets where the slaughtering presently takes place.

The scheme had been mulled since an outbreak of the H5N1 virus here in 1997 killed six people and prompted the culling of more than two million poultry.

Tsang faced vocal opposition from lawmakers concerned for the future of 10,000 market traders and bird handlers.

"We understand that this will bring inconvenience. We will think of a proper compensation system," Tsang said, adding however, that public health was his prime concern.

From news.gov.hk:
Shek Wu Hui site picked for slaughtering plant (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060330/html/060330en05003.htm)

From news.gov.hk:
Stringent farm controls ensure poultry safety (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060331/html/060331en05002.htm)

Workers ill-prepared to launch bird flu response plans: AmCham
Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Monday, July 03, 2006

Fewer than a quarter of the Hong Kong workforce would be able to enact their workplace contingency plans if a bird flu pandemic hit the territory today, according to a survey conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce.

The number of companies with a "clearly stated plan" to deal with a pandemic rose from about 60 percent in the last survey in December, to more than two thirds of firms in May.

But at the level of implementation, fewer than a quarter had communicated their plans to staff sufficiently and were "truly ready," Amcham said.

Of 41 senior human resources executives who completed the questionnaires - representing 51 percent of AmCham member companies operating across the SAR who have 100 to 1,000 staff - only 23 indicated that their employees would be able to cope with an outbreak.

The results also showed that 43 percent of respondents are anxious about bird flu affecting themselves and their families, with 9 percent indicating they are very anxious.

"Companies can say they are ready only when the entire workforce, not just the managers, know about the contingency plans," said Clifford Tayler, AmCham human resources committee chairman.

Preparedness for bird flu has been a huge concern in the business sector.

Estimates by the United Nations say that a pandemic would cost the global economy hundreds of billions of US dollars.

But a well-developed response plan could minimize the negative impact. However, the main difficulty facing many businesses is how to quantify the risk - the likelihood of a pandemic and the impact it will have on business in human and financial terms, said Craig Foster, a senior executive with Hill & Associates, a Hong Kong-based international security and risk-management consultancy

"A key difficulty across Asia is that local governments' capabilities both to monitor and to respond to a pandemic vary greatly. Many countries in the region have only rudimentary medical health systems and are distracted by other socio-political threats," Foster said.

According to an October 2005 socio-economic brief by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, a conservative estimate for the global loss in GDP is US$200 billion (HK$1.56 trillion) in just three months during a pandemic.

HK to resume import of live poultry and birds from Guangdong
Monday, July 3, 2006
Government Press Release

A spokesman for the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau said today (July 3) that it was planned to resume the import of live poultry, day-old chicks and pet birds from Guangdong Province to Hong Kong this Thursday (July 6). Live chickens would be available for sale in the retail markets on July 7.

The first Rest Day for live poultry retailers in July would also be advanced to this Thursday.

"After evaluating the current public health situation, including the confirmation that no new human case is found and no outbreak of avian influenza has occurred in the farms in Guangdong in the next few days, we will resume the import arrangements," the spokesman said.

"Hong Kong experts and veterinarians will, in the next two days, inspect the hygienic condition of the live poultry and breeder chicken farms in Guangdong and Shenzhen which supply live poultry to Hong Kong.

"The quantity of live poultry imports upon resumption would be the same as before, that is, the ceiling of live chicken imports would be capped at 20,000 per day and an average of 20,000 day-old chicks could be imported to Hong Kong daily.

"The first Rest Day in July is advanced to enable live poultry retailers to prepare for the resumption of live poultry imports from the Mainland," the spokesman said.

Rest Days are usually arranged on the 10th and 25th of each month for market stalls and fresh provision shops selling live poultry to suspend business and conduct thorough cleaning and disinfection.

Live poultry outlets would not be allowed to conduct business from noon on July 6 until the next morning.

The spokesman urged all live poultry retailers to strictly observe the Rest Day conditions.

"They must not remove any unsold live poultry from their premises to avoid slaughtering them before the start of the Rest Day.

"Staff from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will inspect the poultry outlets. Failure to comply with the Rest Day conditions will lead to immediate cancellation of fresh provision shop licences or termination of market stall tenancies," the spokesman warned.

As a precaution, Hong Kong decided to suspend the import of live poultry, day-old chicks and pet birds from the Mainland for 21 days from June 16 after a confirmed H5N1 human case in Shenzhen on June 15.

Don't ignore less virulent bird flu strains-experts
By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Experts have called for closer study of less lethal strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus because they might be more likely candidates to spark an influenza pandemic.

Scientists have identified at least four major variants, or "genotypes", of the H5N1 virus since it made its first-known jump to humans in Hong Kong in 1997.

Topping the list is the Z-genotype, which has been found in northern China, Indonesia, Indochina, parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and killed more than half the people it was known to have infected.

Less well known is the V-genotype that turned up in South Korea and Japan in late 2003. This variant infected at least 9 South Koreans who took part in poultry culling in late 2003 and early 2004 to stop outbreaks in the country. None of them suffered any serious symptoms and all recovered.

Another poultry worker was infected after the disease hit poultry farms in South Korea in November but he, too, did not become seriously ill.

Scientists warned against dismissing these less virulent H5N1 strains since they bear more likeness to viruses that have killed millions of people in the past.

Julian Tang, microbiology assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said what made past pandemics deadly was not high mortality rates but the efficiency with which they spread among people. If massive populations were struck down, even a low mortality rate would culminate in devastating death tolls.

"All previous influenza pandemics have shown a relatively low mortality (of less than 3 percent, including the 1918-19 pandemic). The total number of people who died is large because a lot more were infected, but the majority -- or over 97 percent -- survived," Tang told Reuters.

The Spanish flu of 1918-19 killed about 50 million people worldwide, but the real number will never be known.

"There is evidence that even this virus underwent some adaptation to humans before becoming pandemic, which may be what we are seeing in these more mild or asymptomatic human cases of H5N1 in South Korea," Tang said.

HOSTS MUST LIVE

"This makes sense from an evolutionary viewpoint. If a virus is so lethal that it kills 50 percent of its hosts, then it will not transmit very far to infect many other people, and it will die out relatively quickly. It is less likely to become a worldwide pandemic," Tang said.

The H5N1 virus has flared up in recent weeks, spreading through poultry flocks in Japan, Vietnam and Thailand, killing six people in Indonesia and claiming its first human life in Nigeria.

Although it remains a bird disease, it is known to have infected 270 people since late 2003, killing 164 of them.

Experts fear the virus could kill millions once it learns how to pass efficiently among people.

Lo Wing-lok, an infectious disease expert in Hong Kong, called for closer study of all variants of H5N1.

"How likely will genotypes V and Z cause serious human infection? I believe we should have some ideas as to how virulent the two subtypes are," Lo told Reuters.

Tang believes a less virulent strain, rather than the highly pathogenic genotype Z, would more likely be a candidate that could cause a pandemic.

"If H5N1 influenza really does become the next pandemic influenza virus, then it needs to become more human-adapted to efficiently transmit between humans, and not to kill them off too quickly, to enable infected individuals to transmit the virus to someone else," Tang said.

Kestrel tests positive for bird flu in Hong Kong

HONG KONG, Feb 17, 2007 (AFP) - Preliminary tests on a common kestrel found dead in Hong Kong have indicated it was infected with the milder H5 strain of bird flu, the government said Saturday.

The bird was found in Pak Tin estate on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said in a statement, adding that further tests were now being conducted.

The H5N1 strain of the virus is potentially deadly to humans, while H5 is less virulent.

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died of a then unknown mutation of the avian flu virus. Millions of poultry were culled.

At least seven birds have been found dead with H5N1 in Hong Kong so far this year.

Bird flu has killed more than 160 people worldwide, mostly in Southeast Asia, since late 2003 and there are fears it could mutate and trigger a deadly human flu pandemic.

Stretch limited vaccines to fight pandemic-experts

HONG KONG, June 22 (Reuters) - Public health experts in Hong Kong are urging governments to stretch limited stockpiles of bird flu vaccines and lower the dosage used, arguing that such a strategy would reduce overall infection rates.

Many pharmaceutical companies are designing "pre-pandemic" vaccines to fight what experts fear would be the next pandemic caused by the H5N1 bird flu virus, which could kill millions if it mutates into a strain that can pass easily between people.

But there is currently only capacity to make 350-400 million doses of flu vaccine, covering a fraction of the world's population of 6.6 billion.

Writing in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, the researchers recommended using lower doses so that more people could be protected.

Using data on human immune responses to three experimental H5N1 vaccines and infection data from previous pandemics, the scientists developed a mathematical model.

"What our findings show is actually you should be giving less to more people given a certain stockpile," Gabriel Leung, an associate professor with the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, said in a telephone interview.

"Yes, you are trading off a little bit of individual immunity. But overall, because more people are protected, the effect is that everybody ends up better off because of the indirect or 'herd immunity effect'."

He cited examples of childhood vaccines against diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella and diphtheria. While these are widely used in advanced countries, there could never be 100 percent coverage. Yet, whole communities are generally well protected.

"That's because of the 'herd immunity effect'. If there are enough people around them (unvaccinated children) and the mates they play with at school have all been immunised, they are protected as part of the herd," Leung said.

"So even if you introduce an infected case, it can't sustain itself because there aren't enough susceptible people around for them to pass it to. So very quickly, the infection chain of events just die out."

LESS IS MORE

Applying their mathematical model to the United States, the researchers said dividing the planned bird flu vaccine stockpile equally between 160 million people instead of giving it at the fully protective dose to 20 million people might avert about 27 million influenza cases in less than a year.

The United States has a population of 300 million.

Alternatively, giving the maximum protective dose to the 9 million U.S. healthcare workers and using the remaining vaccine at a lower dose to optimise protection within the general population might avert only 14 million bird flu infections, they said.

The scarcity of vaccines has become an emotionally charged issue, with developing nations such as Indonesia refusing to hand over bird flu virus samples unless it is guaranteed a fair pricing and fair distribution of the resulting vaccine.

Pharmaceutical companies can only design vaccines using bird flu virus samples that they get from afflicted countries.

However, the H5N1 virus mutates constantly and experts have long cautioned that these "pre-pandemic" vaccines might not protect against the final pandemic strain.

According to the World Health Organisation, the H5N1 virus has killed 191 people worldwide since 2003, with Indonesia the worst affected country. To date, there have been 100 confirmed human cases in Indonesia and of these, 80 have died.

A vaccine to combat human bird flu could be ready as early as July, Indonesia said on Friday, adding it was prepared to use it immediately despite calls from the WHO to build up a stockpile first.

"WHO urged us to stockpile first. That may work for developed countries, where human cases are yet to appear. But we already have human cases, we are in the middle of a war and we should not be stockpiling anymore," Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said. (Additional reporting by Adhityani Arga in Jakarta)

FEATURE-Bird flu silences once bustling HK songbird market

HONG KONG, June 25 (Reuters) - In its heyday, Hong Kong's famous Bird Garden market bustled with shoppers bargaining in Cantonese for exotic birds for sale as pets or for Buddhist rituals.

But the Bird Garden, one of Hong Kong's more colourful sights, is deserted these days after a migratory bird for sale at the market in the densely populated Mongkok district was found to be carrying the H5N1 bird flu strain.

The discovery a week ago of a daurian starling bird with the virus prompted health officials to ban the sale of birds in the market until further notice.

Government workers dressed in surgical masks and suits disinfect the area daily and health officials are checking for signs of disease among hundreds of birds left in the market.

Vendors fear Hong Kong's latest H5N1 outbreak could herald an end to what was a colourful, lively age-old trade, already hit hard since 1997 when the virus made its first known jump to humans, killing six people in Hong Kong.

"It will be very hard for business to get back to normal. In fact, it has been really tough since 1997 when we first had bird flu," said feed seller Tang Ip-wah, 75.

The virus has re-emerged a few times in Hong Kong since 1997, resulting in mass poultry culls. Since late 2003, the virus has killed 191 people out of 313 known cases worldwide. No one knows for sure how people contract it, but most cases were due to direct contact with infected birds, mostly chickens.

The virus's appearance a decade ago dampened enthusiasm in Hong Kong for the Chinese tradition of keeping birds. The latest outbreak at the market, the main source of birds for Hong Kong residents, mayprompt more bird owners to get rid of their pets.

Bird raising in China dates back to the 17th century, when Manchu nomads conquered Beijing, founded the Qing dynasty and introduced their obsession with these winged creatures.

Freed from the drudgery of work, the newly rich elite spent their days in tea houses showing off their exotic birds.

The hobby has lived on in Hong Kong and some elderly men continue to congregate each morning around dawn in parks, so that their pets can sing along with other birds.

But repeated outbreaks of H5N1 in Hong Kong in poultry since 1997 have led some bird lovers to release their pets, especially after the government warned against kissing pet birds in 2005.

Large numbers of birds are still bought for release into the wild, especially by Buddhists who believe they will benefit in their next lives by giving freedom to living creatures.

"Many people have given up their hobby, released their birds," said Tan, the feed seller.

"Now with this, there will be no recovery. I could hardly make ends meet even before this. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here," said Tan, pointing at his eight pet birds in ornate Chinese bird cages.

The Bird Garden had largely been left alone by Hong Kong authorities during bird flu outbreaks, but concern had risen over the past few months when 16 wild birds were found dead with the disease -- most of them near the market.

Stricter laws from February 2007 required imported birds -- mostly from mainland China -- to have health certificates.

STRICT LAWS, BUT ENFORCEMENT TOUGH

China has strict quarantine laws, demanding all animal exports go through a stringent series of inspections before they are allowed to leave the country.

But even Chinese officials readily admit that enforcement is a problem. China has a vast, porous border, stretching from snowy mountains to steamy jungles and a rugged coastline, making it easy for smugglers to traffic endangered species, antiques, cigarettes and even people.

The daurian starling bird found with H5N1 last week was left at a market stall by its owner. Health officials discovered it was infected during routine testing of bird faecal samples.

The starling -- a migratory bird that breeds in China and Mongolia and migrates to South and Southeast Asia in the winter -- had no health certificate, raising suspicion it might have been smuggled or illegally captured.

The government is still hunting for the person who left the bird at the market to find out where the starling came from.

The government has no plan to shut the bird market permanently, but stallholders seem to think it's inevitable as the demand for live birds continues to plummet because of health fears.

"Business was already thin ... Before last week, we were only making around HK$350 (US$45) a day. Now we make nothing at all. I don't see any hope for us," said Mr Chan, a feed seller. (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing)

Bird garden reopens with measures to combat H5N1
Mong Kok pet market back with pledge of monthly cleanup
5 July 2007
South China Morning Post

Mong Kok's bird garden is to be reopened today with new measures to combat an outbreak of bird flu after being closed for 18 days.

The Yuen Po Street market had been closed since June 17 after the H5N1 virus was found in a faecal swab taken from a Daurian starling at the pet bird shop Prosperity.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said all 330 swab samples, including faecal samples from other shops and environmental samples, collected in the area during the shutdown had been found H5N1 negative.

"The sanitary conditions [of the market] are satisfactory," said assistant director Thomas Sit Hon-chung.

Meanwhile, some 350 pet birds taken from Prosperity more than two weeks ago to the department's animal-management centre in Sheung Shui were found not to have the deadly strain of virus.

But Dr Sit said only 30 to 40 birds were now alive and the others had died naturally as they had not adapted to the new environment.

He said the department had not decided whether to return the remaining birds to shopowner Cheung Lai-yung.

Dr Sit also said there would be a regular cleansing day at the market each month. Yesterday, the agriculture department, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department jointly conducted the first cleanup.

From today, private bird owners without an animal trader's licence are banned from leaving their birds at any 57 pet bird shops in the city. Only licensees are allowed to sell birds.

According to the new licensing conditions, pet birds sold by animal trader licensees are either legally imported from known sources with valid health certificates, or acquired from other licensed traders with supportive documentation, such as invoices and sale receipts detailing the species, quantity, date of transaction and sources.

Traders are also required to keep an up-to-date accounts of bird transactions and the balance of the stock in an agriculture department form. If they give their birds to others as a gift, they have to record the recipient's name, address and phone number.

Agriculture officers will check their forms when inspecting the area daily. In the past, inspectors patrolled the market at least several times a week, said Dr Sit.

"We will also take more faecal swabs from the garden every month," he said. The department currently takes 240 swab samples from the market a month.

But Dr Sit did not give the exact number of samples they would take from today.

Traders also have to call the department before any new eggs hatch. "Our officers will go and check the number of eggs they have and traders have to record the number of baby birds after the eggs hatch," said Dr Sit, adding that they would double-check the information provided.

When customers wish to return their birds to shops after sale, traders have to ask for their receipts and make records.

Health chiefs seek to allay bird flu fears
Hong Kong Standard
Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The risk of widescale human-to-human transmission of bird flu in Hong Kong has not increased despite confirmation of an individual case in Nanjing, according to health chiefs.

Centre for Health Protection controller Thomas Tsang Ho-fei issued the assurance yesterday after the British medical journal The Lancet described the son-to-father transmission as a possible rare H5N1 case.

Speaking after a Legislative Council food, safety and environmental hygiene panel, Tsang described it as a "limited human-to-human transmission."

He said: "Some very close contact, for example, contact with secretions, especially those from the respiratory system and contact [among] family members may have a chance of infection. [But] this mainland case did not spread to the community."

Tsang added it was not the world's first human-to-human transmission as there had been similar cases in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

However, the fear is that the virus will mutate to allow it to be passed from one person to another more easily, sparking a pandemic.

According to The Lancet, the December case in Nanjing involved a man, 24, who died about a week after catching a virus in a poultry market, and his father, Lu Wei, 52, who later recovered. Lu did not have a clear record of poultry contact.

The two men's genes of the virus were very similar, according to the findings.

More than 90 family members and colleagues did not catch the virus.

Medical experts say although the latest finding could be related to the intensity and intimacy of contact between family members, host genetic factors might also play a part in susceptibility to H5N1.

Anyone in close, prolonged contact with an H5N1 victim should get flu drugs just in case, they said.

Meanwhile, Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing said the latest measures adopted by the government against bird flu were ineffective as they depended on delayed confirmation from mainland authorities.

But Tsang said any time difference is caused by waiting for confirmation reports from laboratories, and that mainland authorities already report cases speedily.

The government revealed a new zonal approach against bird flu outbreaks in Guangdong province last week and its effect on poultry supply to Hong Kong. Government inspections of 92 Guangdong registered chicken farms supplying Hong Kong, will be stepped up from last year's 67 trips to a planned 80 this year.

Meanwhile, four cases of influenza- like illness outbreaks in Tsuen Wan, San Po Kong, Cheung Sha Wan and Aberdeen, involving 18 students in three primary schools and a kindergarten, were reported yesterday.

Hong Kong reports bird flu outbreak at farm, suspends chicken imports for 21 days
9 December 2008

HONG KONG (AP) - Three dead chickens tested positive for bird flu in Hong Kong, prompting the city to suspend poultry imports for 21 days and begin slaughtering 80,000 birds, an official said Tuesday.

"We feel that Hong Kong is facing a new alert for bird flu," said York Chow, secretary for food and health.

Chow said the chickens, found Monday at a farm with 60,000 birds, had the H5 virus and further tests were being done to see if they had the deadly H5N1 strain.

The farm and neighboring poultry operations were declared part of an infected zone, and about 80,000 birds in the area would be killed to prevent the spread of the disease, Chow said.

He added that the 21-day ban on poultry imports would last through the Christmas holiday, a time when chicken is an important dish in celebratory dinners.

Hong Kong's biggest bird flu outbreak was in 1997, when the H5N1 strain jumped to humans and killed six people. That prompted the government to slaughter all 1.5 million poultry in the territory.

In 2001, the government also carried out a massive poultry slaughter, killing 306,000 birds in wholesale and retail markets and 951,000 in local farms to eradicate an outbreak of bird flu. The city now has 600,000 birds, Chow said.

At least 245 people have died of bird flu worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

Hong Kong's government has been encouraging retailers to stop selling live birds, and the majority of shops have given up their licenses to sell live poultry. But eating fresh chicken is an important part of the culture and many shoppers still want freshly slaughtered birds.

WHO urges Asia to remain vigilant for bird flu after new outbreak in Hong Kong
11 December 2008

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A World Health Organization official urged Asian governments Thursday not to let down their guard against bird flu, saying a new outbreak in Hong Kong shows the disease still poses a threat.

WHO Western Pacific Director Shigeru Omi said Hong Kong authorities have responded well by suspending poultry imports for 21 days and starting the slaughter of 80,000 birds after three chickens found dead at a farm Monday tested positive for the H5 virus group. Further tests are being conducted to see if they had the deadly H5N1 strain.

"This is an indication that we have to remain vigilant," Omi said on the sidelines of a WHO book launch in Malaysia. "Constant vigilance is the key."

Omi said the outbreak in Hong Kong was "not unexpected because the virus is still circulating in the world, and certainly in this part of the world."

At least 246 people have died of bird flu worldwide since 2003, according to WHO.

Twenty countries had outbreaks of the disease during the first nine months of 2008, down from 25 during the same period last year, U.N. officials have said.

Some officials worry that the public has largely lost interest because the virus has not mutated into a much-feared form that could spread easily among people. It remains hard for people to catch, with most human cases linked to contact with infected birds.

INTERVIEW-Bird flu flares anew, raising uneasy questions

HONG KONG, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The re-emergence of birdflu in in Asia and Egypt has prompted experts to ask tough questions: are poultry vaccines effective against a virus that is constantly mutating, and are governments doing enough to stop it spreading?

The virus turned up last week in a farm equipped with modern biosecurity measures in Hong Kong, killing over 100 chickens and leading to the culling of some 80,000 birds there, in nearby farms and a wholesale market.

Now Guan Yi, an expert on the H5N1 virus at the University of Hong Kong, has warned that poultry farms in some parts of the world were using vaccines that didn't provide full protection against the H5N1 and can't keep up with its mutations.

"That vaccine (used in Hong Kong) was made to fight an American strain of the H5N2, and it is very distant from the Guangdong strain of the H5N1 virus here," he said.

"When there were no outbreaks, we just assumed it was protective. Now that there is an outbreak (in the Hong Kong farm), we assume it is useless," he said in an interview.

While the use of human vaccines is overseen by the World Health Organisation, supervision over the use of veterinary vaccines is far more lax.

"For human vaccines we have recommendations by the WHO. For veterinary vaccines there is no such thing at this moment," said Albert Osterhaus, a leading virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam.

"There is a quality issue and there have been lower quality vaccines seen in the past.

Since late November, the virus has infected two children in Indonesia, killing one of them. It also killed a 16-year-old girl in Egypt this week and made a young man in Cambodia ill after he ate chicken that later tested positive for the virus.

Alarm is also building in India, where hundreds of thousands of chickens are being culled in West Bengal, Assam and neighbouring Meghalaya following outbreaks of H5N1.

VACCINE NO LONGER EFFECTIVE

"The virus is definitely mutating," Guan said, warning that in some areas authorities were using batches of vaccine that were no longer effective.

Guan said the poultry vaccine China currently uses is based on a H5N1 virus strain from 1996/1997, while Hong Kong uses a vaccine based on a 1995 strain of the H5N2 virus.

"But we are going into 2009 now. Could these vaccines still be effective?" he asked.

Since 1997, when H5N1 was first identified in people in Hong Kong, scientists have discovered 10 clades, or branches, of the H5N1, which shows the speed and extent at which it is mutating.

The strain that is circulating in Indonesia, for example, is very different from the H5N1 strain that has been making the rounds in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which experts say was brought to those parts by migratory birds after picking up the virus in China's Qinghai Lake.

"The poultry vacines do work if they are used correctly, but there are speculations that the strains that are being represented in the vaccine do not match well enough with the circulating virus," Osterhaus said.

"There is a theoretical possibility the strain being used in the vaccine is too far away from the circulating strain."

While the H5N1 virus remains largely a disease among birds, it has infected 391 people in 15 countries since 2003, killing 246 of them. Experts fear it could trigger a pandemic killing millions if it could transmit more easily among people.

Doctors and bird flu experts are monitoring about 100 villagers in Guwahati city in Assam after they came down with fever and respiratory infections, symptoms of the H5N1 bird flu virus in humans, but the cases have yet to be confirmed.

Lo Wing-lok, an infectious disease expert in Hong Kong, says governments have also to be alert to the smuggling of chickens across borders, especially when poor vaccines may be "masking" the disease in poultry, but not preventing its spread.

"Governments must know when the high-smuggling seasons are and stop such activities," Lo said.

Dead chickens get H5N1 mutation all-clear
19 December 2008
Hong Kong Standard

The H5N1 virus found in dead chickens in a Yuen Long farm had not mutated, Undersecretary for Food and Health Gabriel Leung told the Legislative Council's panel on food safety and environmental hygiene yesterday.

The genetic sequencing of the bird flu virus detected in the farm on December 9 did not contain obvious differences from previous viruses, Leung told the panel.

Leung also said more tests were needed to find out how the chickens contracted the virus.

There was also good news for the public _ live chickens can be sold again as early as December 30 if things go smoothly.

The early end to the normal 21-day no-chicken ban means the birds will once again be on the menu for Lunar New Year family festivities.

Meanwhile, an Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department spokeswoman yesterday explained why the government has been using an H5N2 vaccine manufactured in the Netherlands to protect local chickens from the flu since 2003, even though recent outbreaks showed the virus strain to be subtype H5N1. She said when vaccines were first introduced to local chicken farms, tests had shown the H5N2 vaccine to be effective against the viruses found in South China.

"The H5N2 vaccine is also effective against H5N1 viruses,'' the spokeswoman said, adding that in 2006, the government had let US authorities test the vaccine, which also showed it is effective for use in southern China.

"However, no vaccine is 100 percent effective. The government has set up an investigation group on avian influenza to look into the matter,'' she said.

Wild birds likely cause of avian flu outbreak
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, January 06, 2009

A recent bird flu outbreak was likely caused by droppings from migrating wild birds rather than from smuggled ones, experts believe.

A government-appointed committee has completed its initial investigation into the deaths of 200 chickens in a Yuen Long farm early last month, which led to a cull of 100,000 birds and a 21-day ban on the sale of fresh fowl. The report will be submitted to the Food and Health Bureau this week.

According to a source, the report studied several possible factors behind the contamination but concluded there was no evidence linking it to smuggling activities. It was more likely caused by contaminated feces dropped by migrating birds inside the farm or nearby area, the report said. It may have stuck onto a worker's garment and was carried into the farm, it said.

Veterinarians and experts of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department who visited the farm found room for improvement in some of the biosecurity measures already in place. They made 10 suggestions to prevent another outbreak.

Another source said biosecurity and vaccines are the two most important things farms need to control in order to prevent bird flu outbreaks.

The source said it was questionable whether all chickens on the farm were vaccinated, but that trying to identify the real cause of the infection was challenging since much of the evidence had been lost during the cull.

The owner, Wong Yee-chuen, said the farm is still being sanitized and cannot resume operations until the government is satisfied with the hygiene conditions.

The AFCD suggested that a metal cover be built for the chicken houses to avoid droppings of migrating birds. It also suggested workers change gloves when handling different lots of chickens to prevent cross contamination.

Wong said he welcomed all suggestions made by the committee as long as they were viable and reasonable. Workers, from now on, will wear thin plastics gloves on top of cotton ones.

He said the outbreak and the aftermath has cost him HK$2 million to HK$3 million.

Dead fowl infected with H5 bird flu virus
1 February 2009
South China Morning Post

Two ducks and a goose infected with H5 bird flu have been found dead on Lantau Island, prompting an expert to warn that Hong Kong could be hit by an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus at any time.

The bodies of the goose and one of the ducks were found on a beach at Sha Lo Wan near the airport on Thursday. Officers from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department collected the body of another duck from the same spot yesterday.

Preliminary tests on all the birds showed they had H5 bird flu. More tests are needed to determine whether they died from the potentially deadly H5N1 strain.

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Ho Pak-leung said the find showed the city was at growing risk from the H5N1 virus.

Dr Ho said this was the third time in a year that bird flu had been detected in the city. "This shows that the virus can spread to the city at any time," he said.

The government must step up efforts to enforce its ban on the keeping of backyard poultry and review its efforts to combat the cross-border smuggling of poultry, he said.

There are no poultry farms within 3km of Sha Lo Wan and a sweep of surrounding villages found no evidence of poultry being kept by villagers.

Officers from the department are investigating whether the birds were dumped on the beach or washed ashore.

A spokesman said the department was very concerned at the discovery and had increased inspections of the area. It urged the public to report any sick or dead poultry or wild birds promptly.

Health authorities have been working at a "serious response level" since December 9, when bird flu killed chickens at a Yuen Long farm. Thousands of birds were culled at the farm, which remains closed.

H5N1 first jumped the species barrier to infect humans in the city in 1997, killing six people, and has since killed more than 250 worldwide.

Nine more dead birds on Lantau stoke flu fears
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Fears of a bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong rose yesterday after nine more dead birds were found on Lantau.

The carcasses of a goose, five chickens, one duck and two birds that were not identified bring to 12 the number of dead birds found on the island since Thursday. The first three tested positive for H5N1.

Hong Kong University assistant professor in the department of microbiology Leo Poon Lit-man said the discoveries increased the chances of a bird flu outbreak.

"If the carcasses are the result of an as-yet- unknown outbreak in the mainland, and [in a place] close to the city, there is a greater likelihood of Hong Kong citizens being exposed to bird flu."

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department is investigating whether the birds may have come from nearby villages or farms.

Department assistant director Liu Kwei-kin said inspections will cover Lantau and then the rest of the territory.

Liu said Hong Kong will collaborate with mainland officials to determine whether the birds came from over the border.

"We will also conduct tests on all carcasses to see whether they are carrying the avian flu virus."

Villagers said there have been other occasions when dead poultry washed ashore. Sha Lo Wan village head Lee Chi-fung said residents believe the dead birds came from the Pearl River Delta.

"We will need to be more careful when walking on the beaches," a female resident said.

The HKU department of microbiology said it is working at sequencing the carcasses to determine whether the birds had succumbed to avian flu, and hopes to complete the process today.

Eighteen people who were exposed to the carcasses in Sha Lo Wan are under medical surveillance by the Center for Health Protection.

The mainland has reported eight human cases of H5N1 infection since December. Five of the victims died.

17 dead birds found on Hong Kong beaches amid bird flu worries
3 February 2009
Agence France Presse

A total of 17 dead birds have washed up on beaches on one Hong Kong island in recent days, officials said, after the H5 bird flu virus was found in two ducks and a goose.

Nine more birds were collected on Lantau island on Tuesday, including six chickens and a duck, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said in a statement.

The statement added that two birds found on Monday had tested negative for the H5 virus.

The other carcasses were highly decomposed and so more time was needed to confirm if they were carrying the disease, the statement released late Tuesday said.

Officials said on Saturday that preliminary tests of a dead goose and two dead ducks found on January 29 had tested positive for the H5 avian influenza.

There has been no indication that the virus has mutated to the deadly H5N1 strain.

H5N1 was found in a chicken at a Hong Kong poultry farm in December, prompting a cull of more than 90,000 chickens.

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major H5N1 bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died. The deadly virus has killed about 250 people worldwide since late 2003.

Seven birds across Hong Kong test positive for H5N1

HONG KONG, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Seven dead birds found in scattered locations across Hong Kong have tested positive for the H5N1 birdflu virus after, health authorities said on Saturday.

The positive test results were found for seven bird carcasses found over the past week or so, including chickens, a duck, and several wild species including a grey heron and peregrine falcon.

Health experts fear the H5N1 influenza, currently infecting many birds in Asia, Europe and Africa, might make the jump to people, and trigger a possible pandemic threatening millions.

The H5N1 infected birds were found mostly in western Hong Kong, including Lantau island where the city's international airport is located, as well as urban areas in Kowloon and the New Territories.

The heron was found in the Mai Po Nature Reserve near the border with China, which has now been closed for three weeks as a temporary precaution with large migrating flocks of wild birds descending on the protected wetlands for the winter.

In China, five people died of bird flu in January, in regions far removed from each other and in which there were no reported cases of bird flu in birds.

Human cases and the appearance of dead wild birds in Hong Kong have caused some experts and media reports to question whether the virus is widespread but undetected in China.

H5N1 currently infects people only rarely but it has killed over half the nearly 400 people infected since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

Hong Kong health authorities stepped up inspections on Saturday to 82 villages but said "no unauthorised keeping of poultry has been observed."

Experts identify compound that may fight bird flu

HONG KONG, April 15 (Reuters) - Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have identified a synthetic compound which appears to be able to stop the replication of influenza viruses, including the H5N1 bird flu virus.

The search for such new "inhibitors" has grown more urgent in recent years as drugs, like oseltamivir, have become largely ineffective against certain flu strains, like the H1N1 seasonal flu virus. Experts now question how well and how long the drug would stand up against the H5N1, should it unleash a pandemic.

Researchers in Hong Kong and the Unites States screened some 230,000 compounds that were catalogued with the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and found 20 that could potentially restrict the proliferation of the H5N1.

The experts told a news conference on Wednesday one of the compounds, compound 1 or NSC89853, showed promise.

"We have found a compound that is different from oseltamivir but which acts in the same way," said Leo Poon, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

"An analogy would be like we have a door with a keyhole, but the hole has changed, and the key, in this case oseltamivir, can't lock the door anymore," he told the news conference.

"But we have discovered another keyhole and another key which can lock the door."

Their finding was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

In their experiment, the researchers infected separate batches of cultured human cells with seasonal flu virus and H5N1 and found that compound 1 prevented the replication of both types of viruses effectively.

"Given the problems with drug resistance, this compound can be used to develop a new drug," said Allan Lau, professor of paediatrics and adolescent medicine at the University of Hong Kong.

But he cautioned it would take as much as eight years for such a drug to be available on the market.

Many advanced countries stock up on oseltamivir and zanamivir, two varieties of the same class of drugs that stops the H5N1 virus from multiplying.

But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in March that 98 percent of all flu samples from the H1N1 strain were resistant to oseltamivir, which is manufactured by Roche AG and marketed under the brand Tamiflu.

Viruses and bacteria are sturdy organisms that fight hard to survive and adapt swiftly to drugs that are used to kill them, quickly becoming resistant to them.

Bird flu found in Tuen Mun woman
18 November 2010
The Standard

Poultry inspections and temperature screening are being stepped up at border checkpoints after a 59-year-old Hong Kong woman who had visited the mainland was confirmed yesterday to have contracted bird flu.

Health authorities said tests are still being carried out to see if she was infected in the mainland or Hong Kong.

``The woman had been to Yan Oi wet market in Tuen Mun after returning to Hong Kong,'' said Thomas Tsang Ho- fai, controller of the Centre for Health Protection.

It is the first case of H5N1 in Hong Kong since February 2003.

The woman had visited Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou together with her husband and daughter from October 23 to November 1.

Five days after returning, she developed a fever.

On Friday she went to Tuen Mun Hospital for a consultation and was sent home.

On Sunday, she was admitted to the hospital and is currently in a serious condition with pneumonia.

Her husband and daughter have not shown any signs of the illness, though the husband had a running nose and cough. He has since recovered.

Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said the H5N1 incubation period could take as long as two weeks.

``Most H5N1 infections are now transmitted from poultry to humans. The risk [of being infected] from travelling together with her when she returned to Hong Kong without any symptoms is extremely slim,'' he said.

``But we will be concentrating on people who were in contact with her when she showed symptoms and also when she was in Hong Kong.''

Test would be conducted to determine if the woman got infected in the mainland or Hong Kong.

Tsang said the most recent case of H5N1 in the mainland was reported in June in Hubei province. A 22-year-old expectant mother, who was exposed to sick and dead poultry, became ill on May 23 and died on June 3.

The disease first emerged in 1997 in Hong Kong, when 18 people got sick and six died. All chickens were culled locally to stop the outbreak.

Since then there have been several poultry outbreaks of H5N1 in the SAR, the last one being in December 2008. H5N1 was at first thought likely to spark a flu pandemic but eventually it was swine flu H1N1 that triggered the first pandemic in 2009.

Officials to meet after first human bird flu case in 7 years confirmed in Hong Kong
18 November 2010

HONG KONG (AP) - Hong Kong has confirmed its first case of human bird flu in seven years.

Health Secretary York Chow said late Wednesday that a 59-year-old woman had tested positive for H5N1 bird flu after returning to Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland, and is in serious condition in a local hospital.

With the announcement, the government raised the bird flu alert to "serious," meaning there is a risk of contracting the disease within the territory.

Chow said Hong Kong officials were meeting Thursday and would determine whether additional measures are needed to safeguard local residents.

The bird flu virus first struck Hong Kong in 1997. Six people died in that outbreak and all chickens in the territory were culled.

Chicken carcass found in Sha Lo Wan tests positive for H5N1 virus
Friday, December 24, 2010
Government Press Release

A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (December 24) that a chicken carcass found in Sha Lo Wan, Lantau was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after laboratory testing.

The highly decomposed chicken carcass was found and collected on December 18 on the seashore at Sha Lo Wan.

The spokesman said the AFCD would continue to monitor the situation and conduct inspections of the seashore and its vicinity.

"The public can call our Call Centre hotline on 1823 if they come across suspected sick or dead birds, including the carcasses of wild birds and poultry," the spokesman said.

Members of the public are reminded to observe good personal hygiene. They should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and their droppings. They should clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them. Poultry and eggs should be thoroughly cooked before consumption.

Health advice is available from the "H5N1 Health Advice" on the AFCD website at www.afcd.gov.hk.

Large-billed Crow tests positive for H5N1 virus
Friday, January 21, 2011
Government Press Release

Under the present avian influenza surveillance programme on dead wild birds, test results available today (January 21) showed that a dead Large-billed Crow found in Tai O was confirmed to be H5N1 positive, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said.

The bird carcass was collected at Sun Ki Street, Tai O on January 18. It was highly decomposed when found and required a series of tests before avian influenza was confirmed today.

The spokesman said there were no poultry farms within three kilometres of where the dead bird was found. The Large-billed Crow is a common resident bird in Hong Kong.

In addition, a dead Oriental Magpie Robin collected on January 17 near a refuse collection point at Fairview Park, Yuen Long was also confirmed to be H5N1 positive after laboratory testing.

The spokesman said all relevant government departments would continue to remain highly vigilant and strictly enforce preventive measures against avian influenza.

The AFCD has phoned poultry farmers to remind them to strengthen precautionary and biosecurity measures against avian influenza. Letters have been issued to farmers, pet bird shop owners, licence holders of pet poultry and racing pigeons reminding them that proper precautions must be taken.

The spokesman said the department would conduct frequent inspections of poultry farms and the wholesale market to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza have been implemented. The department will continue its wild bird monitoring and surveillance.

"People should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and their droppings. They should clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them. The public can call the Call Centre on 1823 for follow up if they come across suspicious sick or dead birds, including the carcasses of wild birds and poultry," the spokesman said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will continue to be vigilant over imported live poultry as well as live poultry stalls. It will also remind stall operators to maintain good hygiene.

The Department of Health will keep up with its health education to remind the public to maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene to prevent avian influenza.

The AFCD, FEHD, the Customs and Excise Department and the Police will strive to deter the illegal import of poultry and birds into Hong Kong to minimise the risk of avian influenza outbreaks caused by imported poultry and birds that have not gone through inspection and quarantine.

Health advice is available from the "H5N1 Health Advice" on the AFCD website at www.afcd.gov.hk .

Black-headed Gull tests positive for H5 virus
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Government Press Release

Preliminary testing of a dead Black-headed Gull found on Lantau has proved positive for H5 avian influenza virus, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (January 26), adding that further confirmatory tests were being conducted.

The bird's carcass was found and collected on January 24 at 81 South Perimeter Road, Lantau. The Black-headed Gull is a common winter visitor.

The spokesman said there were no poultry farms within three kilometres of where the dead bird was found.

In view of the case, the AFCD has phoned poultry farmers to remind them to strengthen precautionary and biosecurity measures against avian influenza. Letters have been issued to farmers, pet bird shop owners, licence holders of pet poultry and racing pigeons reminding them that proper precautions must be taken.

The spokesman said the department would conduct frequent inspections of poultry farms and the wholesale market to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza have been implemented. The department will continue its wild bird monitoring and surveillance.

"People should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and their droppings. They should clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them. The public can call the Call Centre on 1823 for follow up if they come across suspicious sick or dead birds, including the carcasses of wild birds and poultry," the spokesman said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will continue to be vigilant over imported live poultry as well as live poultry stalls. It will also remind stall operators to maintain good hygiene.

The Department of Health will keep up with its health education to remind the public to maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene to prevent avian influenza.

The AFCD, FEHD, the Customs and Excise Department and the Police will strive to deter the illegal import of poultry and birds into Hong Kong to minimise the risk of avian influenza outbreaks caused by imported poultry and birds that have not gone through inspection and quarantine.

All relevant government departments will continue to remain highly vigilant and strictly enforce preventive measures against avian influenza.

Health advice is available from the "H5N1 Health Advice" on the AFCD website at www.afcd.gov.hk.

Chicken carcass found in Tai O tests positive for H5N1 virus
Friday, January 28, 2011
Government Press Release

A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (January 28) that a chicken carcass found in Tai O was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after laboratory testing.

The chicken carcass was found and collected near Yeung Hau Temple, Tai O on January 25. It was highly decomposed when found and required a series of tests before H5N1 avian influenza was confirmed today.

The spokesman said there were no poultry farms within three kilometres of where the dead bird was found. AFCD staff have conducted inspections and found no evidence of any backyard poultry being kept there. The AFCD would continue to monitor the situation and conduct inspections of the area.

A ban on backyard poultry has been in force since 2006. Unauthorised keeping of five kinds of poultry - chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons or quails - is an offence with a maximum fine of $50,000. Repeat offenders are subject to a maximum fine of $100,000.

In addition, a dead Black-headed Gull collected on January 24 at 81 South Perimeter Road, Lantau, was also confirmed to be H5N1 positive after laboratory testing.

All relevant government departments will continue to remain highly vigilant and strictly enforce preventive measures against avian influenza.

The AFCD has phoned poultry farmers to remind them to strengthen precautionary and biosecurity measures against avian influenza. Letters have been issued to farmers, pet bird shop owners, licence holders of pet poultry and racing pigeons reminding them that proper precautions must be taken.

The spokesman said the department would conduct frequent inspections of poultry farms and the wholesale market to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza have been implemented. The department will continue its wild bird monitoring and surveillance.

"People should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and their droppings. They should clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them. The public can call the Call Centre on 1823 for follow up if they come across suspicious sick or dead birds, including the carcasses of wild birds and poultry," the spokesman said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will continue to be vigilant over imported live poultry as well as live poultry stalls. It will also remind stall operators to maintain good hygiene.

The Department of Health will keep up with its health education to remind the public to maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene to prevent avian influenza.

The AFCD, FEHD, the Customs and Excise Department and the Police will strive to deter the illegal import of poultry and birds into Hong Kong to minimise the risk of avian influenza outbreaks caused by imported poultry and birds that have not gone through inspection and quarantine.

Health advice is available from the "H5N1 Health Advice" on the AFCD website at www.afcd.gov.hk.

Grey heron tests positive for H5N1 virus
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Government Press Release

A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (February 14) that a dead grey heron found in Yuen Long on February 8 was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after laboratory testing.

The grey heron was found and collected in grassland near the Shan Pui River, Nam Sang Wai Road, Yuen Long, on February 8.

The grey heron is a common winter visitor.

The AFCD will continue to conduct inspections of poultry farms to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza have been implemented.

The spokesman reminded people to observe good personal hygiene.

"People should avoid personal contact with wild birds or live poultry and clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them," he said.

Oriental magpie robin tests positive for H5N1 virus
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Government Press Release

A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (February 14) that a dead Oriental magpie robin found in Yuen Long was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after laboratory testing.

The bird's carcass was found and collected at the rooftop of No 14, Lane 2, Tung Tau Wai San Tsuen, Wang Chau, Yuen Long on February 7. It was decomposed when found and required a series of tests before H5N1 avian influenza was confirmed today. The Oriental magpie robin is a common resident bird in Hong Kong.

The spokesman said that three chicken farms are within 3 kilometres of where the bird was found. AFCD staff inspected the farms and found no abnormal mortality or symptoms of avian influenza among the chicken flocks. The farms will be put under enhanced surveillance.

In view of the case, the AFCD has phoned poultry farmers to remind them to strengthen precautionary and biosecurity measures against avian influenza. Letters have been issued to farmers, pet bird shop owners and licence holders of pet poultry and racing pigeons reminding them that proper precautions must be taken.

The spokesman said the department would conduct frequent inspections of poultry farms and the wholesale market to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza have been implemented. The department will continue its wild bird monitoring and surveillance.

"People should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and their droppings. They should clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them. The public can call 1823 for follow-up if they come across suspicious sick or dead birds, including the carcasses of wild birds and poultry," the spokesman said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will continue to be vigilant over imported live poultry as well as live poultry stalls. It will also remind stall operators to maintain good hygiene.

The Department of Health will keep up with its health education to remind the public to maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene to prevent avian influenza.

The AFCD, the FEHD, the Customs and Excise Department and the Police will strive to deter the illegal import of poultry and birds into Hong Kong to minimise the risk of avian influenza outbreaks caused by imported poultry and birds that have not gone through inspection and quarantine.

All relevant government departments will continue to remain highly vigilant and strictly enforce preventive measures against avian influenza.

Health advice is available from the "H5N1 Health Advice" on the AFCD website at www.afcd.gov.hk.

Little egrets test positive for H5N1 virus
Monday, February 13, 2012
Government Press Release

A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (February 13) that two dead little egrets found in Tuen Mun on February 6 and 7 were confirmed to be H5N1-positive after a series of laboratory tests.

The two dead birds were found and collected at the northern entrance to Tuen Mun Park, Tuen Mun Heung Sze Wui Road, on February 6 and 7.

The little egret is a common resident bird in Hong Kong.

The AFCD will continue to conduct inspections of poultry farms to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza have been implemented.

The spokesman reminded people to observe good personal hygiene.

"They should avoid personal contact with wild birds or live poultry and clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them," he said.

Black-headed gull and peregrine falcon test positive for H5 virus
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Government Press Release

Preliminary testing of the carcasses of a black-headed gull and a peregrine falcon found in Tuen Mun and Ma On Shan have returned a positive result for the H5 avian influenza virus, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (March 6), adding that further confirmatory tests are being conducted.

The black-headed gull was collected at Castle Peak Power Station Plant B, Tuen Mun on March 2, while the peregrine falcon was found at Kam Kwai House, Kam Fung Court, Ma On Shan on March 3.

The black-headed gull is a common winter visitor to Hong Kong, while the peregrine falcon is a rare winter visitor.

The spokesman said cleansing and disinfection have been stepped up at the venues, adding that there are no poultry farms within three kilometres of where the dead birds were found.

In view of the cases, the AFCD has phoned poultry farmers to remind them to strengthen precautionary and biosecurity measures against avian influenza. Letters have been issued to farmers, pet bird shop owners and licence holders of pet poultry and racing pigeons reminding them that proper precautions must be taken.

The spokesman said the department would conduct frequent inspections of poultry farms and the wholesale market to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza have been implemented. The department will continue its wild bird monitoring and surveillance.

"People should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and their droppings. They should clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them. The public can call 1823 for follow-up if they come across suspicious sick or dead birds, including the carcasses of wild birds and poultry," the spokesman said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will continue to be vigilant over imported live poultry as well as live poultry stalls. It will also remind stall operators to maintain good hygiene.

The Department of Health will keep up with its health education to remind the public to maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene to prevent avian influenza.

The AFCD, the FEHD, the Customs and Excise Department and the Police will strive to deter the illegal import of poultry and birds into Hong Kong to minimise the risk of avian influenza outbreaks caused by imported poultry and birds that have not gone through inspection and quarantine.

All relevant government departments will continue to be highly vigilant and strictly enforce preventive measures against avian influenza.

Health advice is available from the "H5N1 Health Advice" on the AFCD website at www.afcd.gov.hk .

House crow tests positive for H5 virus
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Government Press Release

Preliminary testing of a dead house crow found in Shek Kip Mei has tested positive for the H5 avian influenza virus, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (March 17), adding that further confirmatory tests are being conducted.

The dead bird was found and collected at a planter next to a petrol filling station, outside Tai Hang Tung Recreation Ground, Shek Kip Mei on March 15.

The spokesman said cleansing and disinfection has been stepped up at the venue, adding that there are no poultry farms within three kilometres of where the dead bird was found.

In view of the case, the AFCD has phoned poultry farmers to remind them to strengthen precautionary and biosecurity measures against avian influenza. Letters have been issued to farmers, pet bird shop owners and licence holders of pet poultry and racing pigeons reminding them that proper precautions must be taken.

The spokesman said the department would conduct frequent inspections of poultry farms and the wholesale market to ensure that proper precautions against avian influenza have been implemented. The department will continue its wild bird monitoring and surveillance.

"People should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and their droppings. They should clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them. The public can call 1823 for follow-up if they come across suspicious sick or dead birds, including the carcasses of wild birds and poultry," the spokesman said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will continue to be vigilant over imported live poultry as well as live poultry stalls. It will also remind stall operators to maintain good hygiene.

The Department of Health will keep up with its health education to remind the public to maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene to prevent avian influenza.

The AFCD, the FEHD, the Customs and Excise Department and the Police will strive to deter the illegal import of poultry and birds into Hong Kong to minimise the risk of avian influenza outbreaks caused by imported poultry and birds that have not gone through inspection and quarantine.

All relevant government departments will continue to remain highly vigilant and strictly enforce preventive measures against avian influenza.

Health advice is available from the "H5N1 Health Advice" on the AFCD website at www.afcd.gov.hk.

New jab set to fight bird flu
The Standard
Thursday, August 23, 2012

Hong Kong will switch to a mainland- developed vaccine to protect local farm chickens against a mutated H5N1 bird flu, the health minister said.

Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing- man announced that 10 million doses of the new Re-6 vaccine will be made available from October to target the prevailing H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1 avian influenza that is commonly found in the region.

Local poultry farms produce 1.3 million chickens during each of the three breeding seasons in a year. Each bird will receive two shots when they are 10 and 50 days old, before being sold to the market in three months' time.

The vaccine, developed by the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, has been used in the mainland since June, and replaces the older Re-5 jab, Ko said.

"We are discussing arrangements with mainland authorities to supply the vaccine to Hong Kong," Ko said yesterday.

University of Hong Kong microbiology professor Yuen Kwok-yung said that since 2003, all imported and local chickens were given the H5N2 vaccine from Intervet in the Netherlands.

"It has since proved to be ineffective," he said.

"The public can be reassured that once the birds, both in the mainland and Hong Kong, are inoculated with the new vaccine, our poultry and also our citizens will be fully protected."

Thomas Sit Hon-chung, assistant director (inspection and quarantine) at the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, said: "The seed base of the new vaccine is made from the latest H5N1 virus isolated in China. This closely matches the viruses that are currently circulating."

New Territories Chicken Breeders Association spokesman Lee Leung-kei said two local chicken farms have taken part in pretrials using the Re-6 vaccine.

"Intervet's vaccine is losing its effectiveness in fighting H5N2, especially since some of the vaccinated birds that have been found dead recently were infected with this virus," Lee said.

While the Intervet vaccine costs 40 HK cents per dose, the new mainland-produced vaccine is 30 HK cents.

Mutating virus calls for more changes
The Standard
Thursday, November 01, 2012

Hong Kong is likely to change its bird flu vaccine for poultry more regularly, as the H5N1 virus keeps on mutating, according to veterinarian and epidemiologist Howard Wong Kai-hay.

Wong helped test the mainland-developed Re-5 vaccine on two Hong Kong farms in early November 2010. The government has decided to use its latest version, the Re-6, from later this month in the fight against bird flu.

"Re-5 and Re-6 are identical apart from the fact that the antigen, the viral seed, is different," Wong said.

"In terms of its production and quality control all that is basically the same. Like the human flu vaccine, you just change the seed each year to match the strain."

Since 2003, Hong Kong has been using the Intervet Nobilis H5N2 vaccine against H5N1 in poultry, as part of bird flu prevention measures.

"Almost 10 years down the line the virus has changed quite a lot," Wong said.

The Harbin Veterinary Research Institute in the mainland developed the Re-5 vaccine three years ago and earlier this year came up with an updated version, Re-6, he said.

The Intervet vaccine's effectiveness is becoming less effective as the virus mutates.

The Re-6 vaccinewill be used at Hong Kong's 30 chicken farms.

Some 1.2 million chickens produced at the farms in three-month cycles will have to be vaccinated at eight days old and then a month later.

"They will be then be bloodtested before sending to the market to ensure that their antibody levels are sufficiently high to protect them," Wong said.

The first batch of poultry vaccinated with Re-6 will be ready for the Lunar New Year.

H5N1 first hit Hong Kong in 1997, killing six out of 18 people infected.