Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : HONG KONG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marcel Valentin who wrote (991)	12/22/1997 1:12:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Respond to of 2951

Hong Kong to Destroy Some Chickens Anyone in Hong Kong want to share their thoughts about this breakout? By Dominic Lau HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chickens imported to Hong Kong from mainland China will be slaughtered if they lack proper agricultural certificates as Hong Kong cracks down on a killer "bird flu," Hong Kong officials said on Monday. Mainland officials are working closely with Hong Kong to ensure chickens coming into the territory are tested and issued with certificates to screen out diseased birds. "If the chickens do not have the certificate they will be destroyed," said Daniel Chan, head of an advisory body to the Agriculture and Fisheries Department. The new measures would come into effect "as soon as possible," a department spokesman said, but there were some issues which needed to be resolved first. Hong Kong imports most of its chickens from mainland China. Chan also said authorities would slaughter the entire flock at local poultry farms if one chicken was found with the flu virus. "Chickens in that poultry farm will have to be destroyed if one chicken is found to have the disease," he said. "Neighbouring poultry farms will also have to be checked." So far three people in Hong Kong have died from the H5N1 strain of influenza, which was found only in birds until May this year. It has killed two children and a 54-year-old man. Six other people have been confirmed as having the virus. A 37-year-old man is the latest person to be confirmed as having contracted the flu bug. International health officials have descended on Hong Kong to help investigate the flu virus, and to help determine whether it is being transmitted human to human. Experts from the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been taking blood samples from Hong Kong residents since last week to see whether the bug is transmitted between humans, a CDC spokeswoman said. "They continued to collect blood samples today," she said, but declined to say where in Hong Kong the samples were being taken. The virus is thought to be transmitted through contact with chickens. So far there has been no hard evidence it is being passed from human to human, which would be the first real sign that an epidemic could be in the offing. There has been growing concern internationally over the flu and some countries have imposed measures to head off its spread. A 1968 "Hong Kong flu" killed 46,500 people worldwide. Health and agricultural department officials said they would hold a brainstorming session on Tuesday to discuss ways of easing public concern over the virus, a spokeswoman said. Test results of specimens taken from the first victim, a three-year-old boy who died in May, should be available later this week. "It could help shed light on the virus itself," the health department spokeswoman said. Concerns about the disease have been growing worldwide. In France and Taiwan, health authorities said at the weekend that preventive measures were being taken at airports, despite a fact sheet issued by Hong Kong last Friday saying the bird flu posed no threat to tourists.