The government announced last night that all sales of live poultry in the city will be temporarily stopped with immediate effect after discovering the H7 strain of the avian influenza virus (AIV) in silkie chicken samples at the Nam Yue Supply Market on Tuesday afternoon.
Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) President Jose Fonseca Tavares made the announcement during a press conference at the bureau’s headquarters in Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro.
Health Bureau (SSM) officials also attended the press conference. Tavares said the date on which live poultry sales would be resumed
will be decided after the bureau and its mainland counter parts identify the source of the affected poultry.
Jose Ernesto Paula, who heads the IACM Food Inspection Division, said none of the affected batch of poultry had left the supply market. “None of the affected birds were delivered to municipal markets,” he said reassuringly.
Paula said that all the 6,730 chickens, 3,000 pigeons and 500 silkie chickens in the city would be culled late last night. AH related locations would also be cleaned and disinfected, he said.
SSM Director Lei Chin Ion said a local man and a mainlander were confirmed to have been in contact with the affected poultry. The mainlander has been transferred to a hospital in the mainland, while the local stall owner is being tested for avian influenza and has been quarantined in the isolation ward of the public Conde de Sao Januario Hospital Centre, according to Lei.
“The city will continue to be threatened by avian influenza as said Tavares, adding he hoped residents would understand the severity of the virus and would eventually accept chilled poultry in place of live poultry.
Live poultry sales were also temporarily banned in June and February because of the H7 avian
influenza virus (AIV).
City’s first human AIV infection confirmed
A poultry stall owner, a 58-year-old local man, tested positive for the H7 strain of the avian influenza virus (AIV) late Tuesday night and has to remain in the isolation ward of the public Conde de Sao Januario Hospital Centre
(CHCSJ).
Health Bureau (SSM) Director Lei Chin Ion announced the city’s first confirmed case of human ATV during a special press conference
at the hospital early Wednesday morning.
The man was tested twice for the virus last night – and both results were positive.
The man’s wife, who has been in close physical contact with him, was put in quarantine as well although neither has displayed any symptoms, according to the press conference.
Except his wife, the patient has not been in physical contact with anyone else since handling the affected poultry, Lam Chong, who heads the SSM Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
