wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  PlanetArk 20 Jan 06
Hong Kong Says Dead Bird Tests Positive for H5N1

Channel NewsAsia 19 Jan 06
 Dead bird tests positive for bird flu in Hong Kong
HONG KONG : A wild bird which was found dead in Hong Kong has tested positive for the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Officials have checked chicken farms in the area where the magpie robin was found in the mainly rural New Territories but so far no "abnormal signs" have been detected, said Thomas Sit, acting assistant agriculture director.

He said 9,000 samples had been collected from dead birds in 2005 but this was the first time the virus had been found. Three wild birds died of the disease in Hong Kong in 2004.

Avian influenza first mutated into a form lethal to humans in Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people and prompting the culling of more than two million poultry.

But Sit said there was no reason to panic over the latest discovery. He told reporters the magpie robin, which is native to southern China and can easily be seen in parks around the territory, might have been infected through contact with wild waterfowl, especially migratory birds. It was found at Tai Po by a local resident on January 10.

"There is no cause for alarm...I know wild birds do not usually have close contact with the public. However, the public should also be vigilant in their personal hygiene," Sit said. "We will continue to monitor poultry farms in Hong Kong."

Since the 1997 outbreak the southern Chinese semi-autonomous territory has been largely successful in keeping the virus out through vigilant monitoring of poultry imports and border controls. It has banned all imports of poultry from regions hit by bird flu elsewhere in Asia.

Mainland China has reported over 30 outbreaks of bird flu since the beginning of last year, with most appearing since October. Nine human cases have been confirmed on the mainland, six of them fatal. The virus has killed around 80 people since re-emerging in 2003, all but four of them in Southeast Asia and China.

On Wednesday, international donor nations and organizations meeting in Beijing pledged 1.9 billion dollars to fight the spread of the deadly virus and prevent a possible global pandemic. - AFP /ct

PlanetArk 20 Jan 06
Hong Kong Says Dead Bird Tests Positive for H5N1

HONG KONG - A dead bird found in Hong Kong tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus, but health officials said on Thursday it was an isolated case and there was no cause for alarm.

The species, the Oriental Magpie Robin, is common in Hong Kong and is also often kept as pets. Officials suggested the dead bird could have contracted the disease from water fowl.

"How this wild bird got infected is still unknown. Because migratory water fowl are natural carriers of H5N1, this bird may have come into contact," said Thomas Sit, assistant director of agriculture, fisheries and conservation.

Government officials had inspected chicken farms around the place where the dead bird was discovered, but found neither unusual death rates among poultry nor abnormal signs of disease, Sit added.

The virus made its first known jump to humans in Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people. The H5N1 virus has killed at least 79 people in six countries since late 2003. The victims normally contract the virus through close contact with infected birds.

"There's no call for alarm because it's just one bird," said Gail Cockrane, veterinary director at the Animal Asia Foundation. "There's been the occasional wild bird found dead with H5N1 in Hong Kong," she said, adding it could have flown into the territory from elsewhere.
links
Related articles on bird flu
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com