Fresh chicken could be off the menu for two days each month as officials look to take extra precautions during the high season for bird flu.
They say banning the sale of live chickens for two days a month instead of one is necessary to clean and disinfect poultry markets from December to February to reduce the risk of a new outbreak of avian flu, which killed six people in 1997.
The officials propose that the markets revert to closures just once a month from March.
Poultry markets have been closed on the 25th of each month since a cull of close to 1.4 million chickens, geese, ducks and quail when the H5N1 virus was detected in poultry samples in May last year.
'We are working with industry representatives to minimise disruption to their business,' a spokesman with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said. 'We are only talking about December, January and February.'
However, poultry sellers reacted angrily and warned that closing markets for a second day could damage an already recession-hit industry.
