Carcasses with H5 found on Lantau may be from mainland
Guangdong will be asked to check if there has been a recent undetected bird flu outbreak along the Pearl River after strong indications that the carcasses of three birds with H5 bird flu found on Lantau Island may have drifted ashore from the mainland.
Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok yesterday said there was no evidence so far that the carcasses had been dumped by local villagers who had broken the law banning people from keeping poultry at their homes.
Dr Chow also said he was concerned over whether the means of bird flu transmission had changed following reports of eight H5N1 bird flu cases on the mainland in the past month.
The carcasses of a goose and a duck were found on Thursday on a beach at Sha Lo Wan, near the airport on Lantau. Officers from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department collected another dead duck from the same spot on Saturday. Preliminary tests showed the birds had H5 bird flu.
Dr Chow said: 'We shall inform the mainland authorities so that they can follow up on the dead bird cases along the Pearl River.
'We all understand that the risk of bird flu is especially high during winter. In the past month, eight people have been infected with bird flu on the mainland. But these cases are not related to a major bird flu outbreak.