November 26, 2004

Hong Kong to Develop Plan to Tackle Bird Flu Threats

Hong Kong will study the bird flu situation closely and suggest ways to prevent and control the disease.

York Chow, the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, said the bureau was concerned about the situation in neighboring countries and tried to prevent it from breaking out.

"As the mortality rate is as high as 70 percent," said Chow, "we are worried that the virus will re-sort and transmit from species to humans or even among humans.

"We need a contingency plan to tackle this and we are working on that. We will announce the details in due course," added Chow.

To prevent avian flu outbreaks, Hong Kong hopes to limit the number of live chickens in the market at a level that could be handled.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong must be watchful of migratory birds which are carriers of the bird flu virus as it may affect poultry here.

"We have to understand first of all that most of our food comes from abroad, across the border from China and also from other countries. So it's important for us to understand where they come from," said Chow.

"So we adopt the concept of from feed to table. In other words, we look at the origins of where the food comes from, where the farms that actually develop the meat or poultry are and so on, and the whole process of transferring them or transporting them to Hong Kong or being slaughtered before they process and transfer it to Hong Kong," he said.

Chow revealed that the number is based on population size, with a target of testing eight samples for every 1,000 people in Hong Kong a year. This target has been consistently achieved.

"I think we are pretty safe, in that aspect. We must be mindful that some of the food does not come into Hong Kong through the usual public channel. There are people who carry food across the border and sell it in the market and so on, so we are very careful and try to target some of those risky areas," he added.