Dead chicken with virus proved an isolated case

Poultry wholesalers will be required to record the source of any birds that die while waiting to go to market, before discarding the carcasses.

The new regulation will become effective when a 21 day ban on the sale of live chickens ends on January 12.

The announcement follows a massive cull of 19,451 chickens at the wholesale market on Wednesday after a chicken carcass discarded at the market was tested positive for avian flu H5N1, the day before.

The sick bird so far has proven an isolated case. Of 180 samples taken from chickens culled at the wholesale market, all tested negative for the flu virus strain. Also, the 900 bird samples collected from 30 local poultry farms in Hong Kong proved negative.

Medical checks of 250 wholesale workers and farm keepers also turned up no sign of flu.

York Chow, Secretary for Food and Health, said the finding showed that actual risk of a flu outbreak has stablized. He stressed, however, that even one sick bird still presents a relatively high risk.

The University of Hong Kong is working out the genetic makeup of the virus found on the dead chicken. Chow said the process will be completed in a couple of days to determine if a mutation occurred within the virus potentially capable of disarming vaccine.

The response from government has earned the praise of experts. Leo Poon Lit-man, Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong, credited the cull for containing a possible outbreak and the vaccination for keeping most chickens healthy.

Poon said the high risk of bird flu has always been in the wild, particularly during winter from migratory birds. As long as people stay away from dead birds they come across, the risk of human infection remains low.

The origin of the dead chicken remains a mystery. A spokeswoman for Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said the dead chicken weighed slightly more than the average birds favoured by locals. The larger birds are favored by restaurants. But there is no clue as to its origin.

The health secretary speculated that given the weight of the bird, it probably was more mature, and may have missed an add-on flu vaccination when it was older than six months.

Wholesalers now will be required to file information on every dead chicken with on-duty staff from the fisheries department. The early reporting concept will be tried out when sales resume in mid January.

The government will continue to study the feasibility of fixing leg bands onto every bird. Apart from extra burden of labour and costs, discomfort of chickens wearing the bands might also be a side effect.

kahon@chinadailyhk.com

China Daily

(HK Edition 12/24/2011 page1)