All Birds to die in Hong Kong......................................................
scmp.com
MondayÿÿDecember 29ÿÿ1997
1.2m birds to be slaughtered
STAFF REPORTER
All Hong Kong's estimated 1.2 million chickens are to be slaughtered in a radical attempt to rid the SAR of the deadly bird flu virus that has killed four people.
Poultry in retail markets - including geese and ducks kept near chickens - will also be destroyed in the massive 24-hour operation beginning today.
Government officials announced the move, sanctioned by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, after a New Territories farm and part of a Kowloon wholesale market were found to be infected with the killer H5N1 virus.
Compensation for farmers may top $40 million and 2,200 government workers will be needed to arrange the slaughter.
Teams of five Agriculture and Fisheries Department staff will visit each of Hong Kong's 160 chicken farms and 39 mixed poultry farms. They will place groups of chickens into plastic containers and then gas them to death with carbon dioxide.
The operation is expected to start at about 1pm.
Commercial farms will be the first target, but small flocks raised for family use will also be destroyed. ''No matter how remote they are, they will all be covered in this exercise,'' said Secretary for Economic Services Stephen Ip Shu-kwan.
The 1,000 Urban and Regional Services market poultry stalls will be advised to kill all ducks, geese, pigeons and quail. ''Cross infection could not be ruled out,'' said Mr Ip.
After the slaughter, the carcasses will be disinfected, put into plastic bags and taken to one of Hong Kong's eight landfills for disposal.
The Environmental Protection Department expects to deal with about 6,500 cubic metres of waste generated by the blitz.
Officials will make a count at each location to help with compensation assessments.
Farmers can expect up to $30 for each bird if provisional legislators approve a finance package outlined by the Government during their sitting on January 9.
Farmers supported the slaughter but called for the rapid payment of compensation claims.
With wholesale prices having fallen from $12 to $2 per catty in recent weeks, a Hong Kong Chicken Farmers' Association spokesman said: ''We support any move to restore public confidence. But the Government has to give us compensation quickly so that we can start our business again.''
The mass slaughter was a ''short-term measure'', according to Mr Ip, and another cleaning operation of markets and stalls would follow once the operation was completed.
Another factor behind the decision to kill all poultry was the ''huge number'' of chickens imported before the winter solstice festival, said Agriculture and Fisheries Department assistant director Dr Liu Kwei-kin.
''Chicken sales were poor they were taken away to storage areas and in that process there was some infection and cross-contamination of other chickens,'' he said.
News of the mass slaughter came as a woman who died last Tuesday was confirmed as the 12th case of bird flu. Four have now died. There have been a further eight suspected infections. Three young women remain in critical condition, but two children feared to have the virus were yesterday cleared.
Clinics are to open longer to test chicken vendors for H5N1, officials said yesterday, after earlier analysis showed the virus most likely to be passed directly from birds, though human-to-human transmission was still possible. |
