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HK: no increase of chicken imports from mainland

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-19 23:45

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's top health official said Monday that the city will not increase its imports of chickens during the coming Lunar New Year holidays from the Chinese mainland due to the recent avian influenza outbreak.

A doctor talks on a mobile phone at a quarantined area where a girl diagnosed with bird flu is warded at a hospital in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, January 19, 2009. Hong Kong's top health official said Monday that the city will not increase its imports of chickens during the coming Lunar New Year holidays from the Chinese mainland due to the recent outbreak. [Agencies]

Dr. York Chow, Secretary for Food and Health of Hong Kong, made the remarks when speaking to the press here Monday on the latest human infection of the deadly H5N1 avian flu strain in the Chinese mainland.

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Chow said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government is concerned about the three human cases of H5N1 reported by the mainland recently and has asked mainland authorities for epidemiological study results when they are ready.

"If there is no avian flu outbreak in poultry and yet there are human cases, whether there is a change in the virus," Chow said, " we are very concerned about that."

"Because of that we have decided we will not increase the number of imported chickens from the mainland this year so we will not change the pattern of trading and transport during this period," he added.