New tests on chickens to boost bird-flu defences

Additional tests will be conducted on imported and local chickens from Friday in an effort to boost Hong Kong's defences against the potentially fatal H7N9 strain of bird flu.

The health minister said yesterday that blood-serum tests would be introduced in addition to DNA tests on live chickens.

Chicken traders and health experts have been calling for the additional tests as a further safeguard against the disease which has sickened 20 people in Guangdong. Two Hongkongers have died after being infected.

Secretary for Food and Health Dr Ko Wing-man said the decision to introduce serum tests at the border and on Hong Kong farms followed talks with experts and mainland authorities.

Ko told legislators the two tests showed different things. "A positive result [in serum tests] shows that the poultry was previously infected. It does not mean that it is carrying the bird flu virus at the time of the serum test. To target whether individual poultry has bird flu that can infect us, we are mainly using the current H7 DNA test," he said.

Chen Yuansheng, director of the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, said at the Guangdong provincial legislature's annual plenum yesterday that discussions had not started between Hong Kong and the mainland, but Ko was adamant that consensus had been reached.

Also on Friday, supplies will resume from two Shenzhen farms where exports were suspended after Hong Kong's first H7N9 human case last month.