ENG-2020 — Page 208

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Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries

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.

Samples are collected for testing from poultry farms, wholesale market and retail outlets; from healthy, sick and 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 the collection of sick and dead wild birds and poultry. In 2020, the AFCD collected 9,311 wild bird and poultry carcasses and none of the samples were found to carry the highly pathogenic H5/H7 Al virus.

Other preventive measures against Al include inspecting live poultry retail outlets to ensure compliance with special licensing or tenancy conditions on Al control; cleaning common areas of FEHD markets thoroughly three times a day; cleaning live poultry market stalls after business hours daily, followed by further thorough cleansing and disinfection by FEHD contractors; maintaining the cleanliness of market stalls' ventilation systems; conducting inspections, washing and disinfection of public places where wild birds gather; and taking stringent enforcement action against the feeding of wild birds in public places.

The measures are effective in preventing human infection of Al, as evidenced by the total absence of any locally infected human case of H5 or H7 Al virus after the first Al outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997.

Antimicrobial Resistance

The Hong Kong Strategy and Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (2017-22) tackles the increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance to public health. The plan details AFCD measures in the food animal production sector, including livestock and fish, to alleviate the development of antimicrobial resistance and safeguard animal and public health.

The AFCD monitors antimicrobial usage and resistance in food animal farms. It inspects food animal farms to collect data and samples to evaluate antimicrobial usage, as well as biological samples for bacterial culture and antimicrobial sensitivity testing. The data helps the department identify control points and devise appropriate control measures.

In 2020, the AFCD reduced the permitted antimicrobials listed on the Antibiotics Permits issued to livestock farmers. The eventual goal is full withdrawal, so that prescriptions from registered veterinary surgeons will then be required for farmers to purchase and use antimicrobials.

Control of Animal Diseases

As Hong Kong's inspection and quarantine authority for animals, the AFCD regulates cross- boundary animal movements to prevent animal diseases from entering the territory. The department also assesses the risk of disease in imported animals and animal products on the basis of their species, the intended use and the disease status of the place of origin, and formulates quarantine measures to control the import of animals and animal products.

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