198❘ Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries
bird flu. Government veterinarians also visit registered Mainland farms regularly to ensure that the poultry they export to Hong Kong are healthy.
Keeping chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, quails and other poultry in backyards. is prohibited. Offenders are liable to a maximum fine of $100,000. People who kept poultry as pets before the ban are required to have exemption permits to continue keeping them. Owners of racing pigeons are required to have exhibition licences.
Pet bird traders are required to submit to the health authorities official health certificates, or documents such as invoices showing the places of origin of their birds, or the names and addresses of their suppliers. Sale of birds from unknown sources is prohibited. Bird traders must also keep up-to-date records of their transactions and the number of birds in their possession.
To prevent virus from accumulating in retail outlets, the Government continues to enforce the Food Business (Amendment) Regulation 2008 which states that all poultry in public market stalls and fresh provision shops must be slaughtered by 8 pm every day and that live poultry are not allowed in these premises between 8 pm and 5 am the next day.
Live poultry retailers are also required to observe a set of strict safety rules. They must ensure that people working in retail outlets wear protective clothing and report immediately to the FEHD any dead poultry found. They must not overstock live. poultry in their premises and must affix acrylic panels to their poultry cages to prevent direct contact between customers and the poultry. They are also responsible for preventing customers from touching live poultry.
All live poultry consignments entering Hong Kong have to be tested for avian. influenza before being released to their importers.
To monitor avian influenza efficiently, blood samples and/or faecal swabs are collected regularly from poultry farms, wholesale and retail markets, from healthy, sick or dead birds for testing. The same is done with birds kept in recreation parks, pet shops, and wild birds in wetlands and elsewhere. The Government also provides a round-the-clock service for collecting sick and dead wild birds. In 2011, some 9 800 dead wild birds were received by the AFCD, of which 10 were confirmed to be H5-infected. A quick, real-time method of testing samples for avian influenza, known as Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), is used in Hong Kong.
Long-term precautionary measures require poultry farms to keep proper farm management records, enhance cleaning and disinfection facilities, segregate the functions relating to the rearing of breeder flocks and broiler flocks, and to install metal nets to prevent small birds from entering farm sheds.
In 2011, there were 30 chicken farms in Hong Kong with a total maximum rearing capacity of 1.3 million birds.
The AFCD runs a training programme for staff that carry out poultry culling and conducts culling drills annually.