Safety pledge on poultry imports

Candy Chan and Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Mainland health authorities say poultry products shipped to Hong Kong are safe to eat provided they are properly cooked.
The assurance came as two more mainlanders were confirmed as having the deadly H7N9 strain of bird flu, bringing the total number of infections to 126 - including one in Taiwan.
A patient surnamed Chen died in Shanghai after 12 days of medical treatment failed, Xinhua News Agency said yesterday, raising the death toll to 24.
Cases have been reported in 10 mainland provinces, mainly in the eastern provinces, and one in Taiwan.
The World Health Organization said there has been no evidence so far of human-to-human transmission but warned that H7N9 is "one of the most lethal" influenza viruses ever seen.
Chinese researchers, reporting in The Lancet medical journal, said they have confirmed poultry as a source of the virus among humans.
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has declared that mainland poultry exported to Hong Kong is safe for consumption after the virus was detected in Dongguan, Guangdong province, for the first time on Sunday.
About 23,000 samples from 347,000 poultry imported by Hong Kong and Macau were analyzed in the first 23 days of the month, and none tested positive for H7N9.
Authorities over the border have stepped up the monitoring of poultry farms that provide chickens to Hong Kong.
Temperature checks will also be increased as thousands of mainlanders are expected to visit the territory during the May 1 Golden Week holiday.
The central government has ordered the culling of chickens in some areas and the safe disposal of carcasses to prevent the birds from entering the food chain.
Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man said Hong Kong does not intend to stop importing poultry from the mainland since there are no farms that supply the territory within a 13-kilometer perimeter of the affected market in Dongguan.
New cases of H7N9 include those of an 80-year-old farmer from Fujian who was in a serious condition and a four- year-old boy in Shandong. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=4&art_id=133302&sid=39586284&con_type=1&d_str=20130430&fc=2