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| Sunday, 24 February 2002 |
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Another Hong Kong farm infected with bird flu virus. HONG KONG, Feb 23 (AFP) - Another Hong Kong farm has been found to be infected with the potentially deadly bird flu virus, a government spokeswoman said Saturday. The latest discovery was made at a farm in Yuen Long in the New Territories, she said, just a few kilometres from the Kam Tin quarantine zone where hundreds of thousands of chickens have been slaughtered after bird flu was detected earlier this month. "We received a report from a farm in Yuen Long on Wednesday night. We have already destroyed 18,000 chickens -- that's all the chickens on the farm -- this morning. "We are not sure if this latest case is related to the incidents at Kam Tin," she said, adding that preliminary investigations into the latest case would take several weeks. Deputy Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Dr Liu Kwei-kin told reporters the infected farm had a "good record of hygiene and was not overcrowded with chickens". The reasons behind the outbreak remained unclear. The government would closely monitor surrounding farms, he said. Health workers completed the slaughter of some 340,000 chickens on eight Kam Tin farms to combat bird flu on Friday, bringing the total slaughtered to 860,000 since the latest outbreak, which started on February 1. The authorities have also imposed tighter controls on farms and markets since the outbreak and closed poultry markets for disinfecting. The government has said the latest virus is not the same strain as the deadly 1997 version, which leapt the species barrier to kill six people. The latest bird flu cases come eight months after an outbreak at markets led to the culling of 1.2 million birds at a cost to the government of 245 million Hong Kong dollars (31.45 million US) in compensation. The first outbreak in 1997 resulted in the culling of 1.4 million birds. The current epidemic is expected to cost Hong Kong taxpayers at least five million dollars (650,000 dollars) in compensation to farmers and sellers. |
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