Bird Flu Battle Heats Up With 17,000 Chickens Culled in Hong Kong

After three birds tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus, Hong Kong culled 17,000 chickens Wednesday and suspended live poultry imports for 21 days.

Health chief York Chow announced the measures late Tuesday after a dead chicken at the city's main wholesale market and two wild birds tested positive for the virus, which can be fatal to humans.

Avian Influenza / Bird Flu-Causes-Symptoms-Treatment- FAQs
Bird flu (avian influenza/avian flu) is a disease caused by an influenza virus (H5N1) that primarily affects birds but can infect humans also.

Authorities raised the bird flu alert level to "serious" and suspended live poultry imports while they trace the origin of the infected chicken, meaning major disruptions to poultry supplies over the busy Christmas period.

"It is unfortunate that an avian influenza case is detected before the Winter Solstice, necessitating a halt to the supply of live chickens," Chow said.

"I understand that it will cause inconvenience to the public, and the poultry trade will also encounter losses."

A bird's eye view of the Bird Flu scare
It might not be the plague yet, but the bird or avian flu scare has acquired this nasty habit of sending a shiver down the spine.

All chickens at the Wholesale Poultry Market were slaughtered and extra inspections were ordered at chicken farms and hospitals.

Authorities confirmed Tuesday that an oriental magpie robin found dead in a secondary school at the weekend had tested positive for H5N1, the second such case in a week.

Hong Kong School Shut After Bird Flu Scare
A Hong Kong school was closed on Friday after a dead bird found in the southern Chinese city was tested positive for the deadly H5 strain of the bird flu virus, health officials said.

Another secondary school was ordered to close for a day for disinfection last Friday after a dead black-headed gull was found with the virus.

A school clerk who picked up the bird was taken to hospital with her son, who had developed flu-like symptoms, but both were cleared later.

World Sounds Alarm After Dutch Lab Mutates Fatal Bird Flu Virus
World health ministers said Friday they were being vigilant after a Dutch laboratory developed a mutant version of the deadly bird flu virus that is for the first time contagious among humans.

Hong Kong was the site of the world's first major outbreak of bird flu among humans in 1997, when six people died. Millions of birds were then culled.

The virus, which does not pass easily from human to human, has killed more than 330 people around the world, with Indonesia the worst-hit country. Most human infections are the result of direct contact with infected birds.

In people it can cause fever, coughing, a sore throat, pneumonia, respiratory disease and, in about 60 percent of cases, death.

Scientists fear H5N1 will mutate into a form readily transmissible between humans, with the potential to cause millions of deaths.

Hong Kong is particularly nervous about infectious diseases after an outbreak of deadly respiratory disease SARS in 2003 killed 300 people in the city and a further 500 worldwide.

Source-AFP