Market claims 80pc drop in business
Business at Taiwan's bird markets dropped dramatically yesterday following reports of H5N1 infection in a batch of pet birds smuggled into the island from the mainland.
Operators complained that the latest bird flu scare resulted in business plunging by at least 80 per cent. Adding to their burden was an order that quarantine offices step up monitoring of local bird stores and regularly examine birds' droppings, they said.
Taiwan has been on high alert since the island reported the first confirmed case of the H5N1 strain on Thursday.
The Council of Agriculture also ordered local quarantine offices to strengthen health-care education for bird store workers. Transport officials yesterday also barred passengers from carrying pet birds on buses, trains, subways, ships and aircraft.
From Monday, all students are required to have temperature checks at home before going to school.
Separately, the Hong Kong government said there were no plans to step up anti-smuggling checks on pet birds.
An Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department spokesman yesterday said smuggling of common birds was rare in Hong Kong, although he could not give figures. 'We will only prosecute imports of endangered species,' he said. 'Common birds are not that expensive so cases of smuggling are not very common.'
