Press Releases

Measures to control chicken flu in Pak Sha
Saturday, April 6, 2002

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) depopulated two infected chicken farms in Pak Sha today (April 6). It also decided to use vaccine as an additional measure in other chicken farms in the area to assist in controlling the influenza virus.

Deputy Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Dr Liu Kwei-kin said at a media briefing that two other chicken farms in Pak Sha have already been depopulated earlier because of the detection of H5 virus and the finding of some dead chickens. Since then, AFCD has been monitoring closely chicken farms in Pak Sha.

"Recently the test results of another two chicken farms showed that the chickens there might be infected. But there had been no abnormal mortality on the farms. Thus, AFCD immediately took measures not to allow these farms to sell chickens to market. The farms were also kept under intensive monitoring.

"In the past two days, the mortality rate at one of the farms increased with a total of 187 dead chickens recorded. In an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus, AFCD decided to destroy some 30,000 chickens in the two farms.

"A total of four chicken farms have been depopulated in Pak Sha, including these two farms. Although there is no evidence so far of infection in the remaining 21 chicken farms in the area, we assessed the overall situation in the area and believed that 'ring' vaccination of these farms may be used as an additional aid to control the spread of chicken influenza.

"Depopulation and vaccination have been used in parallel in individual countries. Although vaccination has not been used widely, overseas experience showed that this method can help in controlling the spread of the virus.

"Vaccination helps to increase the resistance of chickens against this disease, reduces their likelihood of developing disease and reduces the amount of virus excreted by infected chickens. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of this vaccine in Hong Kong remains to be assessed.

"Experts believed that the introduction of vaccination in infected areas in Hong Kong, coupled with depopulation, can be applied and may help to control the disease," he said.

Under arrangements made by AFCD, about 400,000 live chickens in Pak Sha and any new consignment of chickens moving to the area will be vaccinated. The program, which will be implemented for one year, will start next week. AFCD believe that the measure would help protect chickens against the disease and help control the spread of the virus.

"I must stress that vaccination is just a supplementary measure to help control chicken influenza. Improvement of farm hygiene and implementation of bio-security measures are of utmost importance in preventing the spread of animal disease.

"We will implement the following three measures at farm level: to amend licensing conditions so as to introduce bio-security measures and raise hygiene levels on farms; to continue active monitoring of the health of chickens to ensure that only chickens that passed our test can be sold at market; to close any farm concerned once there is an outbreak.

"The vaccinated chickens are safe for consumption. We will monitor the response of chickens to vaccination and will conduct testing before sale. Only healthy live chickens are allowed to be sent to market. We will also continue monitoring chicken farms in other parts of Hong Kong," Dr Liu said.

Meanwhile, he said the chicken influenza investigation team would also look into the cause of infection of the two chicken farms in Pak Sha. This team was established to investigate cause(s) leading to the recent outbreak of avian influenza in local farms and to recommend measures to reduce the likelihood of such incidents in future.

The investigation team has completed the process of data collection. However, in view of the coming international forum on avian influenza to be held by the United States Department of Agriculture in mid-April, the team hopes to take into account matters discussed at the forum before finalising the report. In this connection, the Secretary for the Environment and Food agreed to extend the deadline for submission of the report to April 26.