Press Releases

AFCD will start destroying poultry at local farms
Sunday, May 20, 2001

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) will start destroying mature poultry at local farms tomorrow (May 21) and the action will take two weeks to complete.

Speaking at a press briefing today (May 20), the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation, Mrs Lessie Wei, said the operation will cover 208 farms, including chicken farms, pigeon farms and quail farms.

Explaining the reason for the operation, she said, "There is no evidence that our local farms have been contaminated. But since the retail outlets have been closed and will remain so for three to four weeks, there is a need to destroy local chickens, pigeons and quails which will reach marketable age during the time the retail outlets are closed.

"The number of poultry to be destroyed at local farms is estimated to be 1.06 million, including 850,000 chickens, 140,000 pigeons and 70,000 quails," she said.

AFCD will set up three regional command centres in the New Territories. They are the Castle Peak Poultry Breeding Centre, Tai Lung Experimental Station and Ta Kwu Ling Pig Breeding Centre.

"We will deploy about 300 people for the operation, including 220 frontline workers, and 80 supporting staff and people working at the command centres. The frontline staff will be working in 44 teams. They will use carbon dioxide as the means of destruction.

"After destruction, all the poultry will be sent to the landfills at Nim Wan and Ta Kwu Ling. We will ensure that they will be disposed of on the same day they are destroyed," Mrs Wei said.

Meanwhile, AFCD completed the slaughtering of all ducks and geese at the Western Wholesale Food Market by 11 am today. More than 630 ducks and 480 geese were destroyed. The slaughtering operation was aimed to free the stalls from live ducks and geese so that the stalls could be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.

Some 65,000 poultry were destroyed in another operation at the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market yesterday.