|
HK to resume poultry imports from mainland
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-20 15:38
HONG KONG - China's southern province of Guangdong will resume live poultry
exports to neighbouring Hong Kong on Sunday, ending a three-week moratorium
after health experts confirmed that a man in Guangdong had died of bird flu.
The Permanent Secretary of Hong Kong's Health, Welfare and Food Bureau,
Carrie Yau, met Guangdong quarantine officials on Monday and "agreed that we
will resume exports of mainland chickens from March 26", a bureau spokeswoman
said.
"There are no human cases and no outbreak of avian influenza
there," she said.
The birds would be available in Hong Kong markets from
the following day, she said.
A daily maximum of 20,000 chickens would be
allowed in, or 10,000 less than the limit before the three-week ban. The figure
would reviewed in mid-April, she said.
Hong Kong and Guangdong also
agreed in principle to resume exports from the mainland of day-old chicks, but
had yet to fix a date.
Hong Kong banned the import of live poultry from
Guangdong, as well as day-old chicks and pet birds, after the death of a man was
confirmed to be from the H5N1 strain of bird flu earlier this month.
China has reported more than 30 outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in
birds across the country in the past year. None has been in Guangdong, but Hong
Kong has confirmed several cases in birds, fuelling suspicions that authorities
were not being truthful about the situation in the populous
province.
|
| |
|
| |