Bird flu threat played down in affected village
Shataukok residents last night were adamant there were no backyard farmers in their village, where two birds have been found dead with H5N1 in the past week.
Wan Wo-fai, Northern District councillor for Shataukok, said he had visited the Yuen Tuen Shan squatter home of the man whose relative smuggled a mainland chicken into Hong Kong.
The mainland chicken tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu yesterday after the man alerted the authorities to its sudden death.
The man, his mother and cousin on Monday ate another mainland-sourced chicken, which had been raised alongside the dead mainland fowl since January 26.
The family were being kept in isolation last night at Princess Margaret Hospital.
Mr Wan said he was not aware of any people still keeping live poultry in the village.
Yuen Tuen Shan is about 2km from Sheung Wo Hang Tsuen, where a dead oriental magpie-robin was found and confirmed with H5N1 at the weekend.
The village head of Sheung Wo Hang Tsuen said the villagers had not seen any dead birds since last week's find.
He added that villagers had bought butchered chickens to give as offerings over Lunar New Year, halting the tradition of slaughtering poultry themselves.
Dozens of young people were still playing basketball and football on the public playground in Muk Lun Street, Wong Tai Sin, late last night, where a suspected H5N1 infected dead crested mynah bird was found.
Derek Tse, 15, said: 'I am not afraid of catching bird flu. Sars killed more people than bird flu. Why should I be afraid?'
The customs department said it stepped up enforcement against poultry smuggling at the end of October, when Hong Kong stopped processing import applications for live poultry from Hunan . By year-end, it had seized 343.7kg of fresh poultry, 35.9kg of frozen poultry and three live birds.
