The early birds were lucky, the rest missed out.
Hongkongers quickly snapped up the few live chickens remaining on market stalls yesterday after the government halted supplies from wholesalers and ordered a cull following the discovery of deadly H5N1 bird flu in a dead chicken on Tuesday.
The discovery at the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market prompted health workers to slaughter 17,000 birds yesterday and suspend the supply of live chickens from mainland farms for three weeks.
The deadly bird flu strain was also found in two wild birds.
All chickens at the wholesale poultry market were slaughtered and extra inspections were ordered at chicken farms and hospitals.
At the Bowrington Road market in Wan Chai, shoppers nervously inquired about the supply of live chickens at the only live-poultry store, but they did not seem worried about contracting the disease. However, they could only buy chickens that cost HK$160 to HK$180 each.
Store keeper Yau said she had asked for about 200 chickens from wholesalers ahead of the winter-solstice festival today, but because of the culling all she could sell yesterday were 30 chickens left over from Tuesday and a few frozen chickens. She was not concerned about having handled chickens from the infected batch, saying: 'All the chickens we bought were very healthy.'