March 6, 2009

Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Thursday (Mar 5) said that Hong Kong should continue to remain in full alert and stringently implement various preventive measures against bird flu.

Chow said stringent biosecurity measures of local chicken farms are critical to minimise the risk of bird flu.

A bird flu report released Thursday (Mar 5) made a number of recommendations to further enhance the bio-security measures of local farms to guard against the virus, including stepping up inspection on farms and blood tests on chickens to ensure they are healthy and reduce the likelihood of farm workers being infected with bird flu.

He added that for these new measures to work effectively, it depends on the joint efforts of the chicken farmers and the government which could enhance the farms' capability in fending off the virus.

The government will also carry out preventive measures to thoroughly guard against bird flu at various levels, including the import of live chickens, wholesale market and retail outlets to protect public health.