bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Updated at 12.43pm:
The abandoned Kennedy Town Abattoir might be used as one of the regional slaughterhouses of chickens, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok said on Monday.

Dr Chow told local radio measures to isolate chickens from people must be considered to avoid a local outbreak of bird flu.

He said the government might set-up three to four regional slaughterhouses. This would be instead of one central slaughterhouse - if the public demands 60,000 live chickens every day, local radio reported.

'There isn't any abattoir or wholesale market in Hong Kong that can handle such a huge amount of live chickens,' Dr Chow said. 'Therefore, we might need to consider [setting-up] regional slaughterhouses.'

Dr Chow said on Friday the government would launch a pilot scheme of regional slaughtering of chickens next year when he was attending a ministerial meeting on avian flu in Bangkok.

Apart from the abattoir in Kennedy Town, markets with lower usage rates might be turned into pilot regional slaughterhouses, the health minister added.

The plan for the centralised slaughtering of live poultry would be made public as early as next month. But Dr Chow said it would take about two to three years of preparation even if Hong Kong decides to implement the policy.

He said citizens and the poultry industry would be consulted before the government made a final decision.

Meanwhile, Dr Chow said even if a bird-flu vaccine was available, it might not be 'useful' when there is any human-to-human transmission.

'According to previous records, vaccines only offer five per cent protection. We can't rely totally on vaccines if there is any huge outbreak,' he explained.
Dr Chow added that the government was at the final stage of preparing contingency plans for an avian flu or influenza pandemic. It would also draft up measures to guard against the disease if there was an avian flu outbreak in neighbouring countries.

Last week, World Health Organisation experts warned that H5N1 would probably unleash the world's next flu pandemic and infect up to 30 per cent of the world's population.



Chow: abandoned abbatoir may become chicken slaughterhouse