Hong Kong authorities confirmed on Feb. 7, 2009, that H5N1 virus (“bird flu”) tests showed positive in seven recently found dead birds. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said four of the seven birds, including three chickens and a duck, were found last week on Lantau Island.
Though China claimed no bird flu was found in Guangdong Province, its neighbour, Hong Kong, had many reasons to suspect that most of the dead birds found in North Lantau originated from areas along Guangdong’s Pearl River.
Hong Kong media found many poultry farmers in suburban Shenzhen, by the mouth of the Pearl River. Farmers admitted that they never vaccinated their chickens, and revealed that many chickens had recently died. The farmers did not eat the chickens, fearing they may have died of bird flu. Instead, they threw the dead chickens into the sea, as per usual practice.
An investigation on Feb. 7 found no poultry farming on Lantau Island.
This year China has had eight human cases of bird flu with five deaths, compared to only three cases in all of 2008. The eight cases were found in seven different provinces, but Chinese authorities stated there was no bird flu outbreak in these provinces.
Read the original article in Chinese.
