New bird flu virus strikes Hong Kong

By CNN's Hope Ngo

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Hong Kong has slaughtered thousands of chickens after food and hygiene officials discovered birds infected with a chicken flu virus.

The campaign evokes memories of a 1997 outbreak that lead to destruction of more than a million birds and the deaths of six people.

Officials have killed more than 6,000 as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the disease.

Secretary for the Environment and Food Lily Yam told reporters on Wednesday that the cull was ordered after hundreds of chickens were found dead at three different Hong Kong markets.

Subsequent tests revealed the fowl had died of avian flu, but Yam stressed that the strain discovered in the birds could not be transmitted to humans.

"From samples we have recently collected from these three markets, a few are shown to contain the H5 virus . . . and tests have demonstrated that these viruses are not the same as the kind of H5N1 chicken virus that we had in Hong Kong in 1997," Yam said.

"Only the H5N1 chicken strain that we had in Hong Kong in 1997 would affect human beings, and the vast majority of H5N1 strains will not affect human beings," she said.

That year, the government took the drastic step of killing the territory's entire population of 1.4 million birds, to kill off the virus, which also claimed six human lives.

That outbreak drew widespread international concern, and had a far-reaching impact, both economically and socially on Hong Kong.

Most fowl dishes disappeared from Hong Kong restaurants, and the number of tourists visiting the territory dropped.

Yam said the chickens were being destroyed so the virus would not be given a chance to mutate and create a new strain that could affect human beings.

Authorities have yet to trace the source of the virus, but have promised to compensate the owners of stalls whose entire stock of live fowl was being destroyed.

Reuters contributed to this report.