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Health authorities cull thousands of chickens in HK

Health workers clad in masks began culling thousands of chickens at a marketplace in Hong Kong yesterday, a day after authorities raised the bird flu alert level to “serious” following an outbreak at a farm.

More than 60,000 birds were culled.

The outbreak near the border with China was the city’s first in five years despite mass vaccination of the birds, prompting concern that the virus might have mutated.

“A vaccine’s effectiveness today will not be the same like what it was five years ago. So this time, could it be that the vaccine may not be as effective in fighting the virus? This possibility remains,” said Ho Pak-leung (何柏良), a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Health Secretary York Chow (周一嶽) said yesterday morning that the outbreak was “under control.”

Inspectors had visited all local farms in the area and found no further signs of infection, he said.

Tests were meanwhile continuing yesterday to establish whether the birds infected in the new outbreak were infected by the H5N1 strain of bird flu that more easily jumps the species barrier to humans.

Hong Kong uses a Dutch-made vaccine to protect chickens against the virus, whereas some experts say the city should switch to a different vaccine used in China.

“We have to rely on scientific experts’ opinion on which vaccine we should use and how we should use it,” Chow told reporters.

Workers clad in masks, white medical suits and black rubber gloves began the culling in a wholesale market yesterday. Culling also continued for the second day in areas within a 3km radius of the infected farm.

Hong Kong health authorities raised the city’s bird flu alert level to “serious” on Tuesday after the H5 virus killed dozens of chickens at a farm.

Laboratories in the city are trying to determine the precise identity of the virus. A leading expert said it was likely to turn out to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, which turns up regularly in flocks in Asia, parts of Europe and Africa.

Although H5N1 is mainly a disease among birds, it may mutate into a form that spreads easily among people.
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