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No plans to shut down HK poultry farms to end bird flu
( 2002-05-27 15:15 ) (7 )

The government denied Monday it has any plans to shut down the poultry industry in Hong Kong amid wide-ranging proposals to fight a deadly bird flu.

At a meeting of the Legislative Council to discuss ways to step up bio-security on chicken farms, the government was accused of trying to wipe out the chicken industry to pave the way for the mass imports of chilled chicken.

It comes after a six-member team, appointed by the government to investigate an outbreak of the lethal H5N1 avian influenza this year, suggested bio-security measures needed to be improved.

The report added that Hong Kong will remain plagued by deadly avian flu as long as the public continues to crave freshly slaughtered poultry.

"We don't harbour such intention," to eradicate the poultry industry, Thomas Chan, director of agriculture, fisheries and conservation, told legislators.

The goverment considers the chicken industry, which supports the operation of some 140 poultry farms in Hong Kong, a "legitimate economic activity," he added.

But from July the government is planning to increase imports of frozen chickens from the mainland in a bid to wean the Hong Kong public off buying live poultry.

The report was carried out after the latest outbreak of bird flu in February. Although it did not result in any human deaths, authorities had to cull some 860,000 chickens and other poultry to curb the spread of the disease.

In 1997, the H5N1 strain crossed the species barrier for the first known time and killed six people in Hong Kong after they ate or came into contact with infected chickens. That outbreak led to the slaughter of 1.4 million birds.

And in 2001 1.2 million birds had to be culled after another outbreak. The recurring outbreaks have cost the Hong Kong taxpayer tens of millions of US dollars in compensation to poultry farmers and retailers.