Credit FAO
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Hong Kong’s 3-week suspension of live poultry market trade comes to an end today, and with that comes an announcement from Secretary of Food & Health Dr. Ko Wing-man that an ongoing suspension of live poultry imports will remain in place until facilities for holding and testing imported poultry for avian flu can be created.
While some municipalities on the mainland have announced plans to move away from live poultry markets (see VDU Blog Shanghai and Hangzhou to permanently stop live poultry markets), Hong Kong plans to segregate their locally grown poultry from imported birds, in hopes of keeping their markets open.
We’ve brief video announcement, along with a report from News.gov.hk.
Live poultry imports suspended
February 18, 2014
Secretary for Food & Health Dr Ko Wing Man says live poultry imports will be suspended, but the Cheung Sha Wan wholesale poultry market will resume trading after midnight tonight.
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Download VideoSpeaking to the media today, Dr Ko said the Government is looking for a suitable site for poultry awaiting bird flu test results, and will have to consider planning and land use as well as local impact.
The import of day-old chicks and chilled and frozen poultry products will not be affected, he said.
On the Cheung Sha Wan wholesale poultry market's re-opening, following a ban imposed on January 27 when a batch of live chickens from Guangdong was confirmed to have H7N9, Dr Ko said the Government is co-operating with Mainland authorities to trace the source of infection.
In another CHP Press Release, Dr. Ko Wing-man is quoted as saying:
“We have estimated that the planning, actual design and construction work of such a facility would at least take a few months' time.”
Meanwhile we’ve seen a precipitous drop in the number of H7N9 cases being reported from the Mainland – coming just days after demands from the powerful poultry lobby to cease reporting individual cases (see Sandman & Lanard On China’s H7N9 Risk Communications).
Hopefully, this drop in cases is due to the recent closure of live markets, and not political pressure to reduce the economic impact on China’s poultry industry.
