Health alert: Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow says Po On Road Market has been declared an infected area.

Po On Road Market has been declared an infected area after the H5N1 bird flu virus was found in five chicken dropping samples collected from three stalls.

In view of the virus found in local market, the Government has raised the original alert response level to serious response level.

Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow today told reporters the affected stalls got the chickens from the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market. The birds may have come from local or Mainland farms.

Imports of live Mainland chicken will be suspended while local farms will stop dispatching chickens to the market for three weeks to facilitate the Government's work in tracing the source of the infected chickens.

Precaution measures

The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department has cordoned off all the chicken stalls in the market and started culling the 2,700 chickens in it. Disinfection work will also be conducted.

The department has stepped up inspection of 64 markets with chicken stalls and no abnormality has been detected. More chicken droppings samples will be collected for tests.

The department will send staff to the Mainland to inspect registered farms supplying chicken to Hong Kong while more samples will be collected from local wholesale markets for tests.

The Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market will be thoroughly cleaned while the next poultry outlet rest day will be advanced from next Wednesday to Monday.

The Government will also step up checks on chilled poultry products from the Mainland and will enhance its inspection of retail markets and local poultry farms. The Customs & Excise Department will bolster its enforcement work against poultry smuggling.

Mainland authorities informed

Dr Chow said the incident has been reported to the relevant Mainland authorities and quarantine units have been asked to pay special attention to the registered farms supplying poultry to Hong Kong.

"If another case of avian influenza is found in other retail market in Hong Kong, the Government will cull all the chickens in the retail level," he said.

Although no human avian flu cases have been reported so far, the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority will enhance prevention work.

The health of staff at the three affected stalls will be closely monitored. Public and private hospitals and clinics have been reminded to report suspicious cases to the Centre for Health Protection.

People with flu symptoms should seek medical advice immediately and a hotline (2125 1122) has been set up to handle enquiries.