HK slaughters 1.2 m poultry to combat flu

HONG KONG, December 29: Vendors slit the throats of their chickens and ducks on Monday and government teams gassed flocks on farms in an eff...

HONG KONG, December 29: Vendors slit the throats of their chickens and ducks on Monday and government teams gassed flocks on farms in an effort to eradicate the source of a mysterious flu that has killed four people.Family flocks as well as commercial farms were targeted in the massive, 24-hour drive to slaughter Hong Kong’s estimated 1.2 million chickens.

Uncounted ducks, geese, quails and other edible birds were also being killed as suspected carriers of the influenza virus a H5N1, which has long been known to infect birds but jumped to humans for the first time this year.

Twelve Hong Kong people have been confirmed as having the flu, including the four who died, while eight others are suspected of having it. The method of transmission remains a mystery, and there is no vaccine. Not everyone exposed to the virus falls ill, however. At least nine people developed antibodies to the flu without developing marked symptoms.

“Vendors will not be allowed to sell any poultry until the poultry are confirmed to be safe,” Chow Loi, an environmental health official, said as he supervised the slaughter at Hung Hom market.

Government workers in white surgical masks and gloves moved down the market aisles with clipboards, keeping count while barefaced and barehanded vendors pulled birds from cages and drew their knives quickly across the necks. No vendors are known to have been sickened by the flu.

The teams threw the birds in plastic garbage bags, tossed in cupfuls of lime and sealed them in dumpsters for transportation to government-run landfills.