2nd bird in Hong Kong positive for flu

thats all i could fit in the top..Hong Kong is getting hit again

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/promed/f?p=2400:1001:163091166 13192133486::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ ID:1000,31769

AVIAN INFLUENZA - EURASIA (33): WILD BIRDS
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[1]
Date: Fri 27 Jan 2006
From: Alfonso Rodriguez, M.D.<ajrm_msds@yahoo.es>
Source: Yahoo news, UK & Ireland [edited]
< http://uk.news.yahoo.com/27012006/323/second-bird-tests-posi tive-avian-flu-hong-kong.html>


A 2nd wild bird found dead in Hong Kong has tested positive for avian 
influenza, the government in the southern Chinese territory announced.

Preliminary tests showed the magpie robin, found on Thursday in the mainly 
rural New Territories, was carrying the H5 strain of the virus, a 
government statement said, quoting an agriculture department spokesman.

Additional tests were being conducted to determine whether the wild bird 
was carrying the deadly H5N1 strain, which has killed some 80 people since 
2003, mostly in Southeast Asia and China, the spokesman added.

Last week, a dead magpie robin found in the New Territories -- which border 
mainland China -- tested positive for the H5N1 strain.

The government said it would inspect 10 poultry farms within a 5-kilometer 
(3-mile) radius of where the dead bird was found and step up surveillance 
of wild birds in the region.

The spokesman said that if the 2nd magpie robin were confirmed to have died 
of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, it "might be an indication that the virus 
exists in the natural environment".

6 members of the family who own the house near where the bird was found 
were found not to have any symptoms of the disease, but were placed under 
medical watch, the government said.

Avian influenza first mutated into a form lethal to humans in Hong Kong in 
1997, killing 6 people and prompting the culling of more than 2 million 
poultry.

Since the 1997 outbreak, the former British colony has been largely 
successful in keeping the virus out despite the outbreaks across the border 
in China and the death of 3 wild birds in 2004.

The Hong Kong authorities have undertaken vigilant monitoring of live 
poultry imports and border controls, and banned all imports of poultry from 
regions hit by bird flu in China and elsewhere in Asia.

2 bird flu drills were conducted during 2005 and a hefty fine was imposed 
on people feeding pigeons or ducks to reduce human contact with wild birds.