No Fresh Chicken

There will be no fresh chicken on the table as families gather for Winter Solstice feasts today.

 

And vendors cashed in quickly after the government blocked supplies of live chickens for 21 days out of fear of bird flu – in some cases tripling the price of the chilled variety.

 

That had Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok telling retailers to act responsibly.

 

At a market stall in Shau Kei Wan, a whole chilled chicken was selling for $130 yesterday compared with $50 earlier in the week.

 

Similar price hikes bit elsewhere as government workers started culling 17,000 chickens that had been ready to be moved from a poultry (家禽) wholesale market in Cheung Sha Wan.

 

By then, authorities had raised the SAR’s avian flu alert to a “serious” level-one that calls for measures such as limiting visitors at public hospitals.

 

The alert came after a chicken carcass (屍體) found in a bin at the Cheung Sha Wan market tested positive for the highly pathogenic (引起疾病的) H5N1 virus.

 

Hong Kong last launched a big cull in December 2008, with about 90,000 chickens at a Yuen Long poultry farm being destroyed as avian flu struck.

 

While appealing to retailers to give consumer a fair deal, Chow also called for calm (保持沈默). Procedures that worked before had kicked in, he said, “so there’s no cause for alarm or thinking we’re not in control. We really are in control.”

 

Nobody has reported sick, but teams from the Centre for Health Protection are monitoring workers in the wholesale poultry market.

 

In fact, Chow admitted, authorities do not know where the carcass in the market bin came from. So experts are comparing the genetic (起源)sequencing of the carcass with samples of two just-found dead birds, university of Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung said that should be done within a few days.

 

Chow also said he will consider introducing a system such as rings on feet so authorities know the source of any chicken, though it will raise costs in the trade. About 15,000 live chickens are sold in Hong Kong on a normal day.

 

Inspectors from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department have already inspected all 30 local chicken farms and put them in the clear. And traders will now be compensated with the set price of $30 for each culled chicken.

 

A market source expressed concern, however, that the trade faces a loss of up to $10 million on the 21-day ban.

 

Still, the chairman of the Hong Kong Poultry Wholesalers and Retailers Association, Tsui Ming-tuen, said the trade followed the stringent measures set by authorities.

 

He also suspects that wild birds were the source of the virus.

 

House wives, meanwhile, thought about what will be on the table tonight. May Lau Mei-yan said she rarely buys live chicken as it is expensive, “so it won’t affect my Winter Solstice dinner. We’ll be eating out anyway.”

 

Eva Lai Ka-wi said her family will dine at home, and meat other than chicken will feature because of the scare and the price hikes.