Bird flu found in Hong Kong chicken farm
Agence France-Presse | 12/09/2008 5:22 PM
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HONG KONG - More than 80,000 chickens will be culled in Hong Kong after bird flu was found in a poultry farm, the first outbreak in a farm here in nearly six years, health authorities said Tuesday.
"We have discovered up to 60 dead chickens in that farm. After a series of tests we have confirmed this morning that the chickens did die from the H5 virus," health secretary York Chow told reporters.
Chow said the outbreak was found in the New Territories area of Hong Kong, near the border with China.
He said it was the first outbreak in a farm in Hong Kong since early 2003.
"Hong Kong is facing a new alert of avian flu," Chow added.
He said any output from farms would be stopped for 21 days and the territory would prevent any imports of chickens for the same period.
Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died.
It was not immediately clear whether the latest outbreak is the deadly H5N1 strain which has killed about 250 people worldwide.
