February 4, 2004

 

 

No Egg Shortage in Hong Kong

 

The Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department director Gregory Leung Wing-lap yesterday denied a rumor the country is facing an egg shortage following China's ban on egg exports. 

 

"We have contacted the mainland authorities and what we understood is that the supply of eggs from non-affected areas will continue. There will be no shortage," he said last night.

 

Mr Leung said his department would liaise with mainland authorities this morning to clarify the situation. Hong Kong people eat 4 million eggs a day, 90 per cent of which come from the mainland.

 

A spokesman for supermarket chain Wellcome said its suppliers had told the company the mainland had banned the export of eggs. One egg wholesaler said the mainland had stopped granting egg export certificates since Sunday.

 

The wholesaler did not know the reason for the ban, but fears have been raised that eggs may be able to carry the bird flu virus.

 

On Friday, Hong Kong banned imports of poultry from Guangdong as bird flu continued to sweep across the country.

 

The mainland authorities yesterday confirmed an earlier case in Chaoan county, Guangdong, as an H5N1 infection.

 

They also announced seven new suspected cases in the provinces of Gansu, Anhui, Hunan, Hubei and Shaanxi.

 

A report by Xinhua yesterday said experts had also been sent to a Shenzhen zoo to investigate "the cause of the unusual death of black swans".

 

A notice on the gate of Shenzhen Wildlife Zoo yesterday announced the zoo had been closed. An official said the zoo was closed for disinfection but declined to say if there was a connection to bird flu.

 

Commenting on the latest  developments, WHO spokesman in Beijing Roy Wadia said: "While it is a matter of concern, at the same time, it is good to identify the cases quickly so action can be taken as soon as possible."

 

Yuen Kwok-yung, chair professor of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, said last night he believed Hong Kong was still safe.

 

"What we are watching out for is whether the H5N1 virus could be transmitted among humans and whether the H5N2 vaccines being used on Hong Kong chickens would no longer be effective against the virus," he said.

 

The mainland has so far reported four confirmed and 15 suspected outbreaks of bird flu in poultry, affecting 12 of the country's 31 provincial-level regions. No case in humans has been reported.

 

In an attempt to address Hong Kong's concerns, the Guangdong Quarantine and Inspection Bureau on Monday said it would adopt 10 measures to "make sure all poultry for export to Hong Kong" was safe.