CIDRAP News
Date: Feb 23, 2016
By: Lisa Schnirring
Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Nigeria reported new highly pathogenic avian
Farm goose
influenza detections, all involving different strains and signaling ongoing activity in poultry.
Hong Kong’s agriculture ministry today announced that the H5N6 virus has been detected in a chicken carcass that washed ashore at Tai O, a fishing town on the southwest part of Lantau Island, raising suspicion that local people might be violating a ban on raising backyard poultry.
Second recent H5N6 detection
Tests revealed H5N6 in the carcass on Feb 18, but the agriculture ministry said there are no poultry farms in the 3-km area around where the chicken was found. The ministry said the backyard poultry ban has been in place since 2006 and that its staff will inspect the area around where the bird was found to see if there are any illegal poultry.
Today’s announcement closely follows the ministry’s Feb 19 report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) about a positive H5N6 finding in one of four chicken carcasses that washed up on the shore of a beach at Tuen Mun on Feb 14. [FULL STORY]
