WHO chief raises prospect of ban on live poultry sales
Move would help prevent spread of diseases such as bird flu, says city's former health boss
The government should consider banning live poultry sales altogether in order to prevent the spread of diseases such as bird flu, the director general of the World Health Organisation has said.
Dr Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, formerly Hong Kong's director of health, also said that the regional culture of eating fresh chicken would have to evolve to help governments fight the diseases.
In her keynote address on infectious diseases delivered in Hong Kong yesterday at a conference on investment in Asia, Chan said that so far there was no global pandemic of H5N1 and H7N9 bird flu. But she warned of the "amazing ability" the viruses had to mutate, making them harder to control.
Unsustainable food production methods, such as overcrowding livestock, have been contributing to the spread of infectious diseases. Wet markets in particular have become breeding grounds for new strains of viruses and hotspots for infection, Chan said.
When asked whether the government should halt live poultry sales here, she said it was an idea it "should consider".
Wet markets selling live poultry are not common in many parts of the world, but in Hong Kong and parts of southern Asia there is still an appetite for fresh chicken, she said. "You can't just blame the government."