Health News

Fed-up farmers may release chickens in the streets of Hong Kong

Jun 21, 2008, 2:34 GMT

Hong Kong - Chicken farmers may release live poultry into the streets of Hong Kong to protest against anti-bird flu measures that will shut down their businesses, a news report said Saturday. Farmers have rejected a compensation package offered by the Hong Kong government to buy back chicken farm licenses as part of a raft of measures to reduce the risk of bird flu in the city of 6.9 million. They walked out of talks with officials Friday, calling the offer 'insulting' and threatening radical action to win more money from the government, the South China Morning Post reported. Asked what the action would involve, Chicken Breeders Assocation chairman Wong Yee-chuen told the newspaper: '(We may) release our chickens in the streets.' An outbreak of bird flu in markets in Hong Kong earlier this month led to the slaughter of thousands of chickens and the temporary closure of poultry markets. Strict measures have since been announced to reduce the risk of a further outbreak including the buying back of chicken farm licences and a ban on markets keeping live poultry overnight. Hong Kong was the scene of the first modern bird flu outbreak to cross the species barrier in 1997 when the disease infected 18 people, killing six.