Flu prevention: Parks and gardens under the Leisure & Cultural Services Department's management will be cleaned more frequently to maintain a high level of hygiene. Its staff and contractors visited the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden this afternoon.

Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong has announced four new measures aimed at preventing a local outbreak of avian flu.

In an effort to do "everything humanly possible to minimise the risk" of an outbreak here, the Government is:

* suspending the importation of live chickens from Guangdong until the demand catches up with the supply;

* requiring all workers in the trade who handle live chickens to wear gloves, aprons and boots and cancelling licences of those who breach these hygiene measures a second time;

* stepping up the number of blood tests given to chickens crossing the boundary, from 14 to 18, to ensure they are virus-free; and

* temporarily closing Mai Po marshes and walk-in aviaries in parks.

"Public health always comes first and it is always our most important and foremost consideration," Dr Yeoh said.

Temporary suspension aims to ease congestion

There has been a build-up of chickens in our markets, Dr Yeoh said, "but members of the public have consumed fewer chickens. That's why we will be requiring the trade to not import chickens for the time being."

The Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department will withhold chicken-import permits from the chicken farms, and require the trade to stop importing chickens from Guangdong province "for a few days", Dr Yeoh said - "until the supply-demand balance has been restored."

Steep penalty for poultry handlers who fail to wear gloves

The hygiene ordinance governing live poultry sellers at the wholesale and retail levels will be amended so that those who commit an offence a second time will lose their licences and have their market tenancies terminated.

"In the past, we gave them several chances," Dr Yeoh said, adding that Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department staff will closely monitor the wholesale and retail markets for compliance.

The department will also require all poultry farm workers to wear gloves as one of the biosecurity measures in the farm licensing conditions.

Vaccination-effectiveness check strengthened

The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department will step up monitoring measures on the import of live poultry from the Mainland by increasing the number of serology tests on each consignment from 14 to 18 at the border checkpoint in Man Kam To.

"We want to make sure that the vaccination applied to the chickens is, indeed, effective," Dr Yeoh said.

Marshes, aviaries close to public temporarily

The closure of the marshes and aviaries comes into effect tomorrow. "There is a certain risk associated with migratory birds, so we believe it is wise to close them," Dr Yeoh said at a press briefing this morning.

The temporary closure will be in force tentatively until February 29. The Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department will monitor the situation closely and review the closure period.

Two walk-in aviaries in Hong Kong Park and Yuen Long Park will be closed, while the aviaries within enclosed areas at Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Gardens and Kowloon Park will be cordoned off. Notices have been put up to advise the public of the arrangements.