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Hong Kong On Alert As Chinese Officials Begin Chicken Cull After Tenth Person Dies of New Bird Flu Strain

Friday, April 12, 2013 11:57

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(Before It's News)

Tourists wear masks as a precaution walk in Tiananmen Square

Officials in an area of Zhejiang province have begun culling chickens
H7N9 virus claimed its tenth life yesterday as a 74-year-old man died
There are now 38 confirmed cases of the new strain in China
WHO says there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission
Hong Kong is testing batches of chickens imported from mainland China
Carrier pigeons have been grounded and sales of racing pigeons banned
US scientists have begun work on creating a vaccine for the strain
Techniques learned in the swine flu outbreak have given them a head start
But it could still be five to six months before a vaccine is available

By Steve Nolan

Officials in a region of China have been culling chickens in a bid to stop the spread of a new strain of bird flu which claimed its tenth victim in the country yesterday.

City management officers in the Jiaxing area of Zhejiang province undertook a two day campaign which saw chickens captured and reared in residential areas were captured and killed to try and prevent the H7N9 virus from spreading.

The campaign came as a 74-year-old Shanghai man became the tenth person in the country to die from the mutated form of the virus.

Prevention: A city management officer kills a chicken as his colleagues stand by in a residential neighbourhood of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province

A group of city management force conducted a two-day campaign, capturing and slaughtering poultry raised in local residential areas of Jiaxing

A city management officer holds a chicken as a boy rides past in a residential neighbourhood yesterday

Chinese researchers warned yesterday that the sudden emergence of this strain of flu ‘may pose a serious human health risk’ and said ‘appropriate counter measures were urgently required.’

Hong Kong authorities also announced plans to test all poultry brought in from the mainland.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the cases of infection of the virus in China