BREAKING NEWS...More Turmoil hits Hong Kong.
This news might destroy the DOW and markets around the world on Monday. This is it folks, the end of the bull market and the beginning of a chicken-crash.
HONG KONG (Dec. 28) - Hong Kong will kill and burn all chickens in the territory in a bid to rid itself of the ''bird flu'' that has killed four people and aroused fears worldwide of an epidemic, the government said on Sunday.
The radical step, in which up to 1.3 million chickens from about 1,000 markets and 160 farms in Hong Kong will go up in smoke starting on Monday, follows a ban on imports from mainland China and intensive probes into the mysterious killer disease.
As an additional measure Director of Health Margaret Chan told a news conference that all poultry in retail markets, including geese and ducks kept near chickens, would be destroyed.
Officials said about 1,000 personnel would be involved in the mass slaughter.
As well as the four deaths, 12 people have been confirmed as being infected with the H5N1 virus, which normally affects only birds. A further nine people are suspected cases, according to latest figures.
''From tomorrow morning, we will start destroying all the chickens in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories,'' Secretary for Economic Services Stephen Ip told the news conference.
He said the government was not concerned about the cost of the operation, and cared only about the public's health. Compensation would be paid to the thousands of people employed in the poultry business.
Earlier on Sunday the government announced that a chicken farm and a wholesale market had been found to be infected and had been closed.
Scuffles broke out between chicken-sellers and reporters, who are criticized by the poultry trade for exaggerating the bird flu problem and ruining business.
Seeking to calm public fears, K.K. Liu of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department told the news conference that Chinese authorities would ensure that chickens for sale in Hong Kong did not carry the flu virus.
But the ban on Chinese imports would remain until the clean-up operation in Hong Kong was completed and it was certain that Chinese chickens were not infected, Liu said.
''We will cooperate with each other. we will be responsible to do the cleaning-up in the markets, and they (China) will have new institutions for testing.''
Uncertainty remains over how humans are infected by the bird flu virus. Health officials have played down concerns that the disease is transmitted through the atmosphere, such as by coughing and sneezing, which could cause a rapid spread of the disease.
A Hong Kong flu in 1968 killed some 46,500 people worldwide.
One of the mysteries surrounding the ailment is that no poultry workers, who would seem to be at high risk of catching such a disease, have been infected.
Heightened precautions have been ordered in Hong Kong's hospitals, with staff ordered to wear masks when in close contact with flu patients.
A team from the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) will visit southern China soon to investigate the avian virus.
Director of Health Chan stressed that the cluster of bird flu was no indication of an epidemic and, according to the WHO, there was no need for travel restrictions in Hong Kong or elsewhere in the world.
The mass slaughter could be a boon for exporters of frozen food to this territory, where chicken is a basic part of the diet of the 6.5 million people.
Asked at the news conference what Hong Kong people would eat, one official encouraged people to buy frozen chickens from the United States or Australia.
Reut06:24 12-28-97
Mr Metals |
