No evidence of smuggling in bird flu investigation
Experts investigating the bird flu outbreak at a Yuen Long farm have found no evidence that fertilised eggs are being smuggled, but made recommendations on improving bio-security measures.
Industry sources have said it was an open secret that farmers had used smuggled fertilised eggs to produce chickens. 'The expert panel cannot document any smuggling of fertilised eggs, but they have found some things and will soon report to the public,' a source close to the investigation said.
Meanwhile, poultry wholesalers said they were ready for the resumption of imports of mainland chickens on Monday and were confident the sale of fresh chickens would not be affected by the outbreak.
The Food and Health Bureau set up two investigation groups four days after chickens at the Yuen Long farm were found to have H5N1 on December 8. The outbreak killed 200 chickens, and health workers had to cull tens of thousands more. The government also imposed a 21-day ban on fresh chicken sales and imports.
The two groups are responsible for conducting an epidemiological study of bird flu on the farm and a vaccine study.
The owner of the infected farm, Wong Yee-chuen, said the experts had visited it and made recommendations. He said the group had asked farm workers to change to a new pair of gloves if they moved from one chicken house to another.
'My farm has 20 houses. It will cost me a lot if every worker has to wear a new pair of cotton gloves every time they go in and out of each house. Each pair costs about HK$5,' he said.
'I expressed this concern to the group and it said workers can then wear a pair of plastic gloves outside the cotton ones so they can change the plastic gloves instead. The new proposal seems to be more financially feasible to us.'
Mr Wong said the group also asked him to cover some open space on the farm to avoid contamination by migratory birds.
A government source said the import and sale of live chickens was expected to resume on Monday.
'We will consult the experts first before making a final decision,' the source said.
Tsui Ming-tuen, chairman of the Hong Kong Live Poultry Wholesalers Association, said he was not worried about a drop in sales of fresh chicken.
'Hongkongers still love fresh chicken,' he said. 'Some have switched to chilled chicken only because the price of fresh chicken went up so much after the government cut the number of imports.'
But an importer of chilled chickens said the market for fresh birds had declined.
'Many restaurants are frustrated with the unstable supplies and high price of fresh chickens,' he said.
