Tens of thousands of geese on a mainland farm run by a Hong Kong poultry farmer have been banned from export amid the latest bird flu scare.
Kwok Chi-yau, chairman of the Duck and Geese Traders' Mutual Aid Society, said he feared the ban would be extended after the discovery of the H9N2 virus in humans.
'I suffered more than a year ago after the discovery of the fatal H5N1 virus in human beings,' he said.
'I then learned from this tragedy and moved my geese farm to Guangdong province, hoping to better monitor the quality of geese. I thought I was quite clever but now it seems I am not.' He said mainland authorities had banned four of the eight ports in Guangdong from sending geese to Hong Kong since last month when mainland scientists reported the discovery of the H5N1 virus in Guangdong geese.
His farm in Jiangmen has to use one of the ports affected by the export ban, so he cannot move his birds.
Mr Kwok said his farm used to export about 800 geese to Hong Kong daily, but now more than 20,000 geese were being kept on the farm.