An H5 strain of avian influenza virus appeared at a chicken farm in Hong Kong's Yuanlang Fengxiang Village. Relevant departments in Hong Kong immediately raised the level of response to an avian flu outbreak from alert to serious, ordering the destruction of nearly 90,000 live chickens within a 3-kilometer radius of the farm. They also announced that the sale of live chickens and the import of live chickens from the Mainland would be suspended for 21 days throughout Hong Kong. Some of the live chickens that died due to the avian influenza virus had been vaccinated with a Dutch-produced vaccine, leading experts to suspect that this vaccine has become ineffective.
Yesterday afternoon, a staff member of the News Group of Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department informed reporters that there were no new reports of avian influenza outbreaks yesterday, and that a series of measures taken by the SAR government to respond to this avian influenza outbreak were proceeding as scheduled. The staff member also noted that if the epidemic further expands within 21 days, all 600,000 live chickens in Hong Kong could face being slaughtered.
There will be no live chicken sales for Christmas and other holidays.