ENG-2014 — Page 207

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Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries

released for sale. Government veterinarians also inspect registered farms in the Mainland to ensure their compliance with the bio-security requirements.

Keeping chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, quails and other poultry in backyards is prohibited in Hong Kong. Offenders are liable to a maximum fine of $100,000. Owners of racing pigeons are required to hold exhibition licences. Pet bird traders are required to submit official animal health certificates to the health authorities, 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.

All live poultry in public market stalls and fresh provision shops must be slaughtered by 8 pm every day. Live poultry are not allowed in these premises between 8 pm and 5 am the next day. Live poultry retailers 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 on their premises and must affix acrylic panels to their poultry cages to prevent direct contact between customers and the poultry.

To monitor Al effectively, samples 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 from wild birds in wetlands and elsewhere. The government also provides a round-the-clock service for collecting sick and dead wild birds. In 2014, around 11,200 wild bird carcasses were collected by the AFCD and all tested negative for Al.

Other preventive measures against Al include (a) taking faecal and drinking water samples at live poultry retail outlets to test for Al virus; (b) conducting regular inspections of live poultry retail outlets to ensure compliance with the special licensing or tenancy conditions on Al control; (c) cleansing common parts of FEHD markets with disinfectant three times daily; (d) cleansing live poultry market stalls after business hours daily, followed by another thorough cleansing and disinfection by FEHD contractors; (e) maintaining the cleanliness of market stalls' ventilating systems; and (f) conducting regular inspections, washing and disinfection of public places where wild birds gather and taking stringent enforcement action against feeding of wild birds in public places.

Starting from 11 April 2013, the CFS collects swab samples from 30 poultry in each consignment of live poultry imported from the Mainland for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing for influenza A, covering both H5 and H7 Al. In 2014, 21,321 samples were taken from imported live poultry for Al testing. Starting from 24 January 2014, H7 serological testing has been introduced to strengthen surveillance against Al.

On 27 January 2014, the government confirmed a number of samples from a batch of imported live chickens tested positive for H7 Al by PCR test. In accordance with the Al contingency plan, the wholesale poultry market was closed and some 22,604 birds were culled.

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