Local authorities slaughtered 19,000 poultry to prevent the spread of the bird flu epidemic after outbreaks were found in mainland China.
To great ills, great remedies. Faced with an epidemic of bird flu which has already claimed 21 victims, including three deaths, local authorities in Hong Kong slaughtered 19,000 poultry on Wednesday, most of them chickens.
Households in China
This decision comes after the identification of outbreaks of avian influenza among poultry imported from mainland China. The H7N9 virus is a new strain of bird flu that has killed more than 170 people since it emerged in 2013. It was discovered in samples taken from 120 chickens imported from Huizhou. Poultry imports from China have been suspended for a period of 3 weeks.
“The rapid tests showed that these chickens were carriers of the H7N9 virus,” said Hong Kong’s Minister of Health, Ko Wing-man. Local television broadcast the start of the slaughtering operations on Sunday. The carcasses were processed in a landfill.
>> Watch Reuters report on the elimination of poultry in Hong Kong
“Serious” alert level
Last week, the Hong Kong authorities raised the level of alert to the “serious” stage, after the hospitalization of a woman in critical condition, infected with the virus. She had traveled to Shenzhen district in southern China, where the strain was first detected.
South Korea has also slaughtered millions of chickens this year in an attempt to prevent the spread of bird flu. Japan, meanwhile, has just ordered the slaughter of 37,000 chickens after the confirmation of a third outbreak of a H5 strain of the virus in less than a month.
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