ENG-2015 — Page 199

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Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries

A mobile education centre also helps disseminate food safety and environmental hygiene messages across the territory.

The CFS' Communication Resource Unit in Mong Kok organises food safety programmes and provides technical support to people in the food trade and the public. Up to the end of 2015, 23 food trade associations and 1,821 food premises and retail outlets had subscribed to the centre's Food Safety Charter, which was drawn up to promote best practices in handling food. During the year, the centre also conducted 185 health talks on food safety and deployed two vans to broadcast food safety messages in housing estates and markets.

Measures against Avian Influenza

Government measures to keep avian influenza (Al) at bay include stringent monitoring of the poultry supply chain from farm to retail levels, vaccination of chickens against H5 Al and close surveillance of imported and local birds.

Under an agreement with the Mainland, all poultry, except pigeons, imported from registered farms must be vaccinated against H5 Al, commonly known as bird flu. Every live poultry consignment bound for Hong Kong must be tested negative for H5 and H7 Al before being released for sale. Government veterinarians also inspect registered farms on the Mainland to ensure their compliance with the bio-security requirements.

Hong Kong prohibits the keeping of chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, quails and other poultry in backyards. 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 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 8pm every day. Live poultry are not allowed in these premises between 8pm and 5am. Live poultry retailers must ensure 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; from birds kept in recreation parks and pet shops; and from wild birds in wetlands and elsewhere. The government provides a round-the-clock service for collecting sick and dead wild birds. In 2015, the AFCD collected 10,464 wild bird carcasses and three of them were found carrying the H5 Al virus.

Other preventive measures against Al include taking faecal and drinking water samples at live poultry retail outlets to test for the Al virus; conducting regular inspections of live poultry retail outlets to ensure compliance with the special licensing or tenancy conditions on Al control; cleaning common parts of FEHD markets thoroughly three times daily; cleaning live poultry

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