Demand for action to combat overcrowding at chicken farms
Chicken farmers have accused the government of dragging its feet on working out what to do about 'very serious' overcrowding at farms amid a ban on poultry deliveries.
They claimed that some 390,000 plump chickens that were 70 to 90 days old were now ready for sale, and that that number would hit 1 million birds at 50 local farms by the time the 21-day ban on deliveries was lifted.
The government said on Saturday it was considering arrangements for the chickens that would be announced later this week. Local farms have been barred from releasing chickens to market since the discovery of the H5N1 virus at several markets earlier this month for the first time in five years.
Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said yesterday the government would be 'very careful' before allowing any live chickens into wet markets, particularly as Guangdong announced on Tuesday that the H5N1 virus had killed hundreds of ducks at a waterfowl farm in Xinhui district in Jiangmen .
Retailers would have to agree to the government's proposal not to keep poultry overnight, Dr Chow said.
'This is one of the important steps we need to come to agreement on before we can move on. Also, quite a number of retail representatives told us they might prefer to have an arrangement of terminating the trade, but with good compensation, and this is of course another area that we will explore,' Dr Chow said.
Hong Kong could only be confident that the flu had not spread to any humans by the end of next Wednesday, he said. Forty workers are being monitored for signs of bird flu.
Food and Environmental Hygiene inspectors did not carry out any inspections when they visited eight registered farms connected to the Hong Kong outbreak, a spokesman for the department said yesterday.
Farmers' representatives voiced their concerns at a meeting with Cheung Siu-hing, director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
Agriculture and Fisheries legislator Wong Yung-kan, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said yesterday farmers were facing losses of HK$16 million as a result of the latest outbreak, claiming the government was dragging its feet.
'The government just listens to our opinions without taking action,' Mr Wong said. 'It did not give us any concrete reply.'
