The government may resort to emergency legislation to enforce daily cleansing at retail outlets selling live chickens, said Secretary for Food and Health York Chow yesterday.

Since the discovery of the H5N1 bird flu virus in chicken fecal samples in Hong Kong on June 7, the government has been proposing the introduction of daily cleansing at wet markets to prevent a bird flu outbreak.

But the proposal is rejected by the poultry trade.

"We can understand their resistance to the proposal," he said. "But if the trade wants to continue the business, daily cleansing is the only option."

Chow warned that if traders remain adamant about the proposal, the government may have to consider emergency legislation.

Legislators have different views on introducing emergency legislation on daily cleansing.

Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene Chairman Tommy Cheung Yu-yan expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the legislation in eliminating the risk of a bird flu outbreak.

Legislator representing the agriculture and fisheries sector Wong Yung-kan said the government will have to come up with a long-term plan for the development of the poultry trade before it can garner the traders' support.

He added the government can also provide the trade with information that they demand. For example, the number of live chickens to be supplied by the mainland and local farms, and whether there will be central slaughtering.

Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene vice-chairman Fred Li Wah-ming said he supports the legislation and urged the government to provide legislators with relevant information as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Chow said the government will within this week advise on how to handle the healthy chickens that have been left unsold since the ban on live poultry sales was imposed last week.

There are 390,000 farm chickens that have reached the right age to be sold, said New Territories Chicken Breeders Association chairman Wong Yee-chuen after meeting officials from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

Wong said if they can't sell the chickens before July 2 (the day the 21-day ban on the sales of live chickens expires), they will lose HK$16 million.

Chicken farmers demanded the government provide them with chicken feed and a compensation of HK$50 for each chicken in case it decides to cull the chickens.

With regard to an outbreak of bird flu in Guangdong, Chow said the threat to Hong Kong is not high because the duck farms there do not supply ducks to Hong Kong.

He added a 21-day suspension was imposed Tuesday on chicken exports from a nearby chicken farm to the city.

(HK Edition 06/19/2008 page1)