Need for slaughterhouse checked

Government-appointed consultants are looking into whether Hong Kong still needs a central slaughterhouse now that the number of live chickens sold in markets has dropped from 60,000 a day to 14,000, Secretary for Food and Health Dr York Chow Yat-ngok said at a Legislative Council Finance Committee meeting. The supply of live chickens has fallen since bird flu hit the city in 2008. Some lawmakers say the slaughtering system need not change.