Some 40,000 live chickens were delivered from 18 local farms to the wholesale market in Hong Kong yesterday evening to be ready for sale today.

Prior to the delivery, poultry retail markets were thoroughly cleaned to guard against avian flu.

The government said chickens delivered to the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market have been tested by samples to make sure that there is no presence of the H5 avian influenza virus.

The government banned the supply of local live chickens last Friday. The move incurred complaints from farmers of being unfairly punished as no infected bird has been found in the territory.

After the resumption of deliveries today, the supply volume will be subject to temporary controls depending on the volume of sales at the close of business today.

But with exports of live mainland chickens to Hong Kong already embargoed, the supply of merely 40,000 live chickens is expected to push up prices once they hit the market, said Tsui Ming-tuen, chairman of the Hong Kong Poultry Wholesalers' Association yesterday.

This can be predicted by past sales records on days immediately after rest days when market stalls are closed for thorough cleaning, he said.

The local market can absorb as many as 150,000 to 200,000 live chickens, he said.

As sales resume, the government said its disease prevention work is to be beefed up to spare Hong Kong from any human or animal infection.

One of the efforts is collecting dead chickens from local farms by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation.

The practice, having started from yesterday, will allow the government to better monitor chicken deaths and check the spread of bird flu virus.

A total of 1,000 dead chickens were collected from 31 local farms yesterday.

One of the farms reported 550 deaths out of a total of 13,000, but a government spokesman said the chickens, all small ones, might have died from other disease.

Despite that Hong Kong is free from the bird flu, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided to include Hong Kong in its bird embargo notice.

Yeoh Eng-kiong, secretary for health, welfare and food, yesterday criticized the decision as unjustifiable.

"The measures we have adopted have been effective in averting an H5 avian influenza outbreak in Hong Kong despite the extensive and rapid spread of the disease in the region," he stressed.

In another development, a clinical team of four leading Hong Kong experts will visit Viet Nam from February 8-13 to assist doctors there in the clinical aspects of human avian influenza at the request of the country's Ministry of Health, according to a government statement.

The team's activities will include visits to major hospitals in Hanoi, lectures, training sessions and ward rounds.

(China Daily HK Edition February 6, 2004)