Hong Kong could ban live poultry sales amid H7N9 bird flu scare, says top health official
Health minister tells industry workers to set aside self-interest and focus on threat bird flu poses to public health and the need for strict controls
PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 1:57pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 03 January, 2015, 2:48am
Emily Tsang [email protected]
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department staff dispose of culled chickens at Cheung Sha Wan market. Photo: Felix Wong
Live poultry sales could be banned in the city if wholesalers do not conform to strict controls to curb the spread of bird flu, Secretary for Food and Health Dr Ko Wing-man said yesterday.
"The city relies on the strict measures in the live poultry supply chain to prevent the public from the threat of bird flu," Ko said. "If the industry workers do not put aside [their self-interest] … I believe in the long term it is up to the public to decide whether to end the live poultry supply."
He said the government had hired consultants to study whether live poultry supplies should be stopped.
His remarks came as wholesalers argued with the government over delivery arrangements for local live poultry, following the culling of 19,000 birds at Cheung Sha Wan wholesale market and a three-week embargo on imported birds. The action was taken after samples from a farm in Huizhou , Guangdong, tested positive for the deadly H7N9 strain of the virus.
Nine local poultry wholesalers are threatening to cease trading until regular imports resume and plan a protest tomorrow in which they will spill live chickens in the busiest areas in the city.
They want the government to rethink the arrangement that requires all local chickens to be gathered for inspection without being offloaded at Ta Kwu Ling checkpoint, while the Cheung Sha Wan market is closed.
Ko said yesterday that the government was unable to arrange another site to replace the checkpoint, which is too small to allow traders to offload chickens from trucks for distribution to wet markets across the city.
He stressed it is important that birds are moved directly from farm to retailer, without mixing with other chickens, so the government can trace the supply chain.
Ko urged wholesalers to alter their current logistics or use smaller trucks to solve the checkpoint problem. But a live poultry wholesalers association said the government should allow them to offload live chickens and move them to different trucks for delivery to retailers.
A spokeswoman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said health officers had finished inspecting all 29 poultry farms for bird flu and were waiting for the test results.
She said the Ta Kwu Ling checkpoint could return to normal operations in one or two days if wholesalers agreed to resume the sale of live chickens.
Authorities in Huizhou said yesterday that it had culled 13,000 chickens on a poultry farm, as its exports to Hong Kong were found to be infected with the deadly H7N9 virus. They had also inspected more than 1,000 farms, and the virus was not detected in over 7.68 million samples they collected for testing.
Hong Kong raised its response level in hospitals to "serious" after a 68-year-old woman tested positive for H7N9 last month. She was in critical condition yesterday.
In January last year, Hong Kong culled 20,000 birds and banned the sale of live chickens for three weeks after a sample from a Guangdong supplier tested positive for bird flu.
Mainland and local sales were halted as Cheung Sha Wan market was closed for disinfection. The government paid more than HK$10 million in compensation to breeders and wholesalers.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said at the time that the affair raised questions over whether live poultry sales could continue in the city.
