In 1997, a strain of avian flu jumped the species barrier and infected 18 people in Hong Kong, killing 6 of them. When tests found the flu spreading among Hong Kong chickens, the entire population of more than one million chickens was slaughtered in an effort to wipe out the disease.
But the avian flu returned in 2002 and hundreds of thousands of chickens have died and been slaughtered.
Research into samples of the 2001 and 2002 viruses show that the latest virus is indeed based on the pervious year’s version — efforts to eradicate the disease failed.
At least one research in Hong Kong, microbiologist Guan Yi, says the only solution is to close all live chicken farms in Hong Kong and ban the importation of live chickens from China. “I believe we have to get rid of the farms, and the poultry markets, and the import of fresh chickens,” Guan told China Daily.
Peter Wong Chun-kow, the Hong Kong president of the World’s Poultry Science Association, rejected that idea, telling China Daily that, “Avian influenza is just like any human flu — you just cannot get rid of it. However, it does not make sense to get rid of the poultry industry to get rid of the bird flu. That would be an ignorant act.”
The real problem here is China. Almost all chickens sold either live or ready for sale in Hong Kong are imported from China — only about 20 percent of chicken sold in Hong Kong actually originates from Hong Kong.
China is notoriously inept at efforts to track the origination of the influenza outbreaks. Not only does China not keep accurate records of outbreaks that would allow researchers to trace back the source of new strains of influenza, but even when China has a habit of denying that there is any new strain of influenza even to the point of denying that its farmers have been forced to slaughter chickens when it is easy to confirm that such actions have, in fact, occurred.
Time reported that when there were reports of an avian flue outbreak and the slaughter of chickens in China’s Fujian province, the response of the Chinese government was simply to deny everything.
The situation is so bad that if live chickens from China are refused by Hong Kong because the avian flu is detected, the chickens are simply slaughtered, repackaged as frozen, and re-exported back to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s problem is less with chickens than it is with the politicians in China who do not want to take responsibility for eradicating the avian influenza.
Source:
Hong Kong’s Fowl Problem: Hong Kong’s latest bird flu scare points to a lack of Chinese cooperation. Davena Mok, Time Asia, February 18, 2002.
Hong Kong chicken flu slaughter “failed”. Emma Young, New Scientist, April 19, 2002.