The Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed that the Kingdom does not import live chickens from Hong Kong or any other city in the world. The announcement comes in the wake of the Chinese authorities culling 17,000 chickens infected with the potentially lethal bird flu, or H5N1 virus, in the city on Wednesday. An official source at the Ministry of Agriculture told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the ministry has strict measures in place to prevent the spread of any diseases at farms and local markets. The source pointed out that surprise inspections of farms are continuing. Dr. Ziyad Meimish, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Preventive Medicine, said there was continuous cooperation with the agriculture ministry on bird flu and other infectious diseases. He assured consumers that the Kingdom is free of the virus. Sales of live poultry in Hong Kong markets were placed on immediate hold for 21 days on Wednesday, it was reported by China Daily on Thursday. Local hospitals were told to raise their flu alert to“serious” as a precautionary measure. A laboratory at the University of Hong Kong is now determining whether the virus strain found in the dead bird had mutated, which would have made the virus vaccine-resistant. The 17,000 live chickens at the Cheung San Wan wholesale market were exposed to lethal gas in an operation that began at about 11A.M. on Wednesday. The remains were wrapped in black plastic bags and disposed off in a landfill. The alarm went off earlier this month after two wild bird carcasses were found in the New Territories. Both tested positive for the H5N1 flu virus. The H5N1 virus first broke out in Hong Kong in 1997, leading to the deaths of six people, it was reported by the China Post on Friday. Humans have little or no immunity to the H5N1 bird flu strain, according to the website of the United States Department of Health & Human Services. As of Dec. 15, 2011, the World Health Organization had recorded 573 cases of H5N1 around the world since 2003, of which 336 patients died. __
