Ban on bird imports to be shortened
The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau will shorten the bans on imports of live poultry when a human case of bird flu is confirmed in Guangdong.
The bureau said yesterday that following recommendations by the Centre for Health Protection on Friday, the import ban would be cut from 21 to 14 days.
According to the bureau, the 21-day ban in the event of a human bird-flu outbreak in Guangdong was based on World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) recommendations.
At Friday's meeting, the Centre for Health Protection's scientific committee on diseases transmitted between animals and humans decided the ban should be cut provided no simultaneous outbreak of bird flu occurred on poultry farms supplying Hong Kong.
'The scientific committee has considered several factors, including epidemiology, incubation period and mode of transmission among humans and poultry, empirical data from the investigation of Guangdong human cases and the OIE code,' a bureau spokesman said.
People's Health Actions chairman Lo Wing-lok opposed the relaxation. He said because humans caught bird flu mainly from poultry and there was no test to guarantee live chickens from bird-flu-affected areas were safe, there should be a total ban, not a temporary suspension.
'Most places in the world would completely ban the import of live chickens from countries and territories where avian influenza was reported, and not impose the short, temporary import ban operated by Hong Kong government,' he said.
