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Reuters Health
As the mass slaughter of poultry in the territory began on Friday, pressure on the government to trace the source of the virus increased. Authorities said they have few clues about the origin of the influenza strain, but said it could not affect humans. The slaughter was ordered to stop the strain from combining with other influenza viruses, and becoming potentially virulent in humans.
Six people died of avian influenza in 1997 in Hong Kong. In response, the government ordered the killing of its entire poultry population of 1.4 million.
Over the weekend, the government completed the extermination of all live poultry at local markets and on Monday began slaughtering birds that have reached maturity in more than 200 farms in the rural New Territories. The entire exercise will take 2 weeks and will cost the government US $10.25 million, including compensation to the poultry trade.
Secretary for Food and Environment Lily Yam told legislators on Monday that they did not know if the influenza strain had come from nearby mainland China. Nevertheless, Hong Kong has halted imports of poultry from mainland China, which supplies over 70% of the approximately 100,000 fresh chickens consumed daily in the territory. Chinese authorities have already denied responsibility for the influenza outbreak in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong government has not firmly indicated when the import ban would be lifted and when chickens would be sold again in local markets. Already, suggestions are being made to end the age-old practice of killing live poultry in local markets-often under poor hygienic conditions.
"It's fair to say the only certain way of being sure that we don't have a repetition of events that are occurring now would be to have a central slaughtering system," said Malik Peiris, an associated professor in microbiology of the Hong Kong University. This could end the tradition in Chinese cuisine of using fresh, rather than refrigerated, poultry.
Buddhist monks prayed on Sunday to appease the souls of the dead birds.
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