Press Releases

AFCD continues checking chicken farms
Saturday, October 21, 2000

The chicken samples taken from 18 farms in the vicinity of a farm the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) isolated yesterday (October 20) were tested negative for the H5 avian influenza virus.

AFCD Senior Veterinary Officer (Livestock), Dr Leslie Sims, said today (October 21) that a total of 884 samples taken from these 18 farms in Yuen Long and three farms in other areas all passed the screening test.

Dr Sims said: "As one of the precautionary measures, we will continue deploying veterinary officers, field officers and laboratory staff to re-assess all 133 poultry farms in Hong Kong."

"We have visited 52 farms today to take samples for testing.

"An additional 700 samples were collected from the suspected farm for virus isolation this morning by staff from AFCD and the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

"Blood testing on the samples will continue over the weekend by AFCD and HKU and results will be announced as available," Dr Sims said.

He reiterated that AFCD would test all local poultry farms and press on with the testing of samples from the suspected farm to establish whether an H5 virus was present.

Dr Sims stressed that there was no apparent public health risk from poultry products, adding that AFCD had contingency plans in hand for dealing with any positive cases.