# 2064
Authorities in Hong Kong want to know if poultry traders ignored, and failed to notify them of unusual bird deaths in the live markets.
Preliminary reports indicated that no such warning signs were reported, raising the specter of asymptomatic infections among Hong Kong's poultry.
While that possibility still exists, authorities are now looking at another plausible explanation :
That poultry traders simply didn't notify them of bird deaths.
This from AFP.
HK traders may have ignored bird flu warning signs
June 12, 2008
HONG KONG - POULTRY traders in Hong Kong may have failed to promptly alert the authorities to a possible bird flu outbreak, the city's health secretary said on Thursday, following a mass cull of chickens.
An investigation team was now trying to identify why the H5N1 virus had gone undetected despite spreading to four wet markets across the territory, said York Chow, secretary for health, welfare, and food.
'It is possible that we were not told about these cases, which resulted in a delay to our investigation,' he told local broadcaster RTHK.
Live poultry traders are required to immediately report any dead chickens to authorities.
