June 8, 2016

Hong Kong suspends live poultry trade

Hong Kong suspended live poultry trade and was to cull all live poultry at Cheung Sha Wan wholesale market on Tuesday, June 7, after a fecal sample taken from a Tuen Mun retail market tested positive for H7N9 avian flu virus, Xinhua reported.

The decision to kill the birds was made even if fecal samples taken from nine local poultry farms tested negative to the virus.

All the 270 samples collected from Cheung Sha Wan, which is the only poultry wholesale market in Hong Kong, also tested negative, according to Food and Health Secretary Ko Wing-man, adding it had 4,500 live poultry.

Ko said the government would take samples from the remaining 20 local chicken farms and that hopefullythe results would be out before the Dragon Boat Festival on June 9, when chickens are in high demand in Hong Kong.

He said the supply of live poultry would be resumed after all samples tested negative, adding they were trying to trace the origin of the virus.