Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow has urged the three live-pig suppliers to reach a consensus on operating arrangements soon to ensure a stable supply, adding the relevant Mainland authorities have been informed of the situation.

He told reporters today the Government has been closely monitoring the live-pig supply, which was unstable in the past week. As the new live-pig supplier has been in place for only a few weeks, there are commercial issues the three suppliers must resolve, he added.

On the Jiangsu bird-flu case, Dr Chow said so far there is no report of a virus mutation, or any sign of  increasing human-to-human transmission.

With winter coming and waterfowl being H5N1 carriers, he said the risk of having individual avian-flu cases from the Mainland is predictable and would perhaps continue.

"The most important thing is that it would not affect the poultry supply of Hong Kong. The poultry farms designated for supplying Hong Kong and chicken farms in Hong Kong are under bio-security measures. We are quite confident we can detect any early cases if it affects Hong Kong, and take relevant measures to counter any cases that would happen in Hong Kong," Dr Chow added.