HK checks reports of 30,000 chicken deaths

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong is checking media reports
of the deaths of 30,000 chickens on a farm in the northeastern
Chinese city of Dalian, a government spokesman said on Monday.

Authorities have been on the lookout for outbreaks of the
H5N1 bird flu virus on farms, which experts fear may evolve
into a form passed easily from human to human and trigger a
pandemic, killing millions of people.

The farm, operated by the Dalian Hanwei Chicken Farm Co.,
kept two million hens and was a major supplier of eggs to
Beijing and southern China, including Hong Kong and Macau, the
South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

“We are trying to clarify with Chinese authorities about
the reports. All food that’s exported to Hong Kong from China
must be approved by authorities in the mainland,” the spokesman
said.

“We haven’t had any reply yet,” he said.

In an interview with Hong Kong’s TVB station on Sunday
night, a manager of the company’s subsidiary in Beijing said
she was told 20,000 to 30,000 chickens died on the farm around
May 4.

The manager, Zhang Yan, said the chickens died after being
injected with vaccines to protect them against bird flu.

Instead of giving protection, bad vaccines can cause
illness, or worse, mask diseases. In the latter case, the
animal or person appears well but would carry the virus and
infect others.

That eggs may be contaminated is especially worrying for
Hong Kong. Unlike imports of live chickens or pork from China,
which need to originate from approved farms, there is no such
requirement for eggs, though they are randomly tested in China.

“Eggs do get inspected and mainland authorities monitor and
test them before exporting them to Hong Kong but they do not
come from designated farms,” the Hong Kong government spokesman
said.

He did not know if eggs from Dalian were exported to Hong
Kong.

Highly pathogenic bird flu viruses can be found inside and
on the surface of eggs laid by infected birds, and eggs from
areas with outbreaks in poultry should not be consumed raw or
even partially cooked, according to the World Health
Organization.

In China, 12 people are known to have died of bird flu and
six have survived. Worldwide, 115 people have died in nine
countries. The virus remains a disease in birds and is hard for
humans to catch.

China has reported almost 40 outbreaks of bird flu in
poultry across a dozen provinces over the past year. Health
experts see the country as being particularly at risk because
of its huge human population and many poor, remote areas.

As in many other parts of Asia, domestic poultry often live
cheek by jowl with humans in China, increasing the risk of
transmission to people through contact with sick birds.