9
Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries
To monitor avian influenza efficiently, blood samples and/or faecal swabs are collected regularly for testing from poultry farms, wholesale and retail markets, from healthy, sick or dead birds, and from 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 2012, 21 of some 15,100 wild bird carcasses received by the AFCD were confirmed to be H5- infected. A quick, real-time method of testing samples for avian influenza, known as Polymerase Chain Reaction, 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 install metal nets to prevent small birds from entering farm sheds. In 2012, 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.
During the year, the Government temporarily suspended the importation of chilled or frozen poultry meat and poultry products from a number of overseas places with avian influenza outbreaks.
In July 2012, H5N1 virus was detected on a swab sample collected from a bird cage holding an Oriental magpie robin at a pet bird shop in the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden in Mong Kok. The AFCD closed the shop and removed all the birds for disposal and the bird garden was closed for 21 days.
Monitoring of Influenza Virus in Pigs
The AFCD monitors closely the health of pigs in Hong Kong and reminds local pig farmers regularly to maintain good farm and personal hygiene. The FEHD also examines imported live pigs and constantly reminds slaughterhouse staff and others who have physical contact with live pigs in slaughterhouses to wear masks and other protective gear and to receive influenza vaccination, CFS literature on food safety includes advice on the handling and cooking of food, particularly pork.
Public Markets and Cooked Food Markets
The FEHD operates 102 public markets, including 25 free-standing cooked food markets, that provide some 14,400 stalls selling fresh and cooked food and household items. As at the end of 2012, the occupancy rate at these markets was 89.5 per cent.
Hawkers
The FEHD regulates hawking in Hong Kong. As at the end of 2012, there were 6,269 hawkers carrying out business in licensed fixed-pitch stalls and 470 itinerant hawkers.
163