Health News
Chicken sales plummet in Hong Kong after bird flu is detected
Jun 8, 2008, 8:18 GMT
Hong Kong - Chicken sales in Hong Kong plummeted Sunday after the discovery of the H5N1 bird flu virus at a poultry market in the former British colony.
Four thousand chickens remained unsold at the city's wholesale market and traders quoted by government-run radio station RTHK said sales were down around 30 per cent.
Workers in face masks and protective suits Saturday killed 2,700 chickens at an infected market in a chilling reminder of the bird culls in the city in the 1990s.
The outbreak, the first in Hong Kong in recent years, was discovered at a livestock market in the city's Shamshuipo district, the government said.
The H5N1 bird flu virus was found on swabs on chicken faeces from the market in Po On Road which was Saturday declared an infected area and sealed off to the public.
All chicken imports from mainland China, the suspected source of the outbreak, have been banned and the government will consider culling all chickens in the territory if more cases are found.
Hong Kong was home to the first modern case of bird flu to jump the species barrier and infect humans in 1997 when the H5N1 virus killed six people and infected 12 others.
Since then, thanks largely to stringent checks and mass culls when any cases are discovered, there have been no further cases of humans infected by bird flu in Hong Kong despite regional outbreaks.
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