Mystery surrounds chicken deaths at Hong Kong farm as toll hits 3,500

Investigations to determine the mass deaths of chickens at a Yuen Long farm continued yesterday as the toll rose to 3,500.

Clad in protective gear, officers from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and veterinarians visited the farm yesterday to check hygiene, ventilation and vaccinations, and take samples as the government launched checks on all local chicken farms.

Initial tests by the department ruled out bird flu as the cause, and the results of further tests had not been released last night.

The birds are raised on the farm for Hong Kong Poultry (Kamei Chicken) Development. Its director, Regal Cheng Chin-keung, has said he suspected a power cut during a storm a few days ago caused the deaths of the chickens after their pens became "too stuffy" when the fans stopped working.

He said yesterday that the impact of the deaths on the popular local brand had not been great. "That farm is only one of seven farms we use," he said.

Cheng's company sells Kamei chicks - a breed developed in Hong Kong by the University of Hong Kong Kadoorie Agricultural Research Centre - to the farms, then buys them back when they are big enough for sale.

He urged consumers not to worry about avian influenza because the government's tests had ruled it out.