Hong Kong flap over chicken flu outbreak

By CNN's Patricia Lai

HONG KONG, China -- Hong Kong authorities are stepping up inspections in poultry stalls after slaughtering more than 6,600 chickens to prevent an outbreak of deadly bird flu.

Some 790 chicken and poultry were reported to have died of H5N1 avian influenza in three poultry markets in Hong Kong, prompting the local government to slaughter all poultry in the stalls.

In 1997, the outbreak of a fatal strain of the H5N1 virus killed 6 people in Hong Kong. The government slaughtered 1.4 million poultry to contain the flu.

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A government spokesman said no more poultry had been reported to have died of abnormal conditions related to the virus following Wednesday's slaughter.

There was little fear that humans might be vulnerable to the virus.

Lily Yam, Hong Kong's Secretary for the Environment and Food, said from samples recently collected from these three markets "genes sequencing tests have demonstrated that these viruses are not -- I repeat not -- the same as the kind of H5N1 chicken virus that we had in Hong Kong in 1997".

There are still some samples in the government laboratory being processed, with results available in the next few day.

No humans affected

There are many strains of H5N1, unlike the strain in Hong Kong in 1997; a vast majority of the virus strains do not affect human beings.

"There is no evidence this strain of virus would affect humans, but mutation in genetic sequence is very common in H5N1," John Tam, Chinese University microbiology professor told CNN.

He said it was possible the virus could infect people if it was introduced to other viruses and mutated.

Besides stepping up inspection in all poultry stalls, the Food and Environment Hygiene Department is also working with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to trace the source of the disease.

Live poultry is supplied locally and imported from the mainland. The Hong Kong authority has been discussing the issue with the mainland authority.

"So far no sign of the virus is found and the department has no plan to slaughter more poultry. But we are following the situation closely," an Environment and Food spokesman told CNN.

The three stalls will be closed for two to three weeks and will be compensated for the loss of business.