Hong Kong bird flu outbreak raises doubts about detection

The report released this month said wild birds were the most likely carriers of the virus that broke out in December on a farm close to the territory's border with the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, prompting the culling of 90,000 chickens.

While the authors could not say for certain where in Asia the wild bird may have contracted H5N1, the report said the specific version of the virus was the same as that “currently circulating among poultry in southern China.”

The report came days after two dead chickens with H5N1 were found floating in the sea off Hong Kong, the latest of more than a dozen chickens, ducks and other birds to wash up along the city's coastline since the start of year.

“From the various investigations we have done (the washed-up carcasses) are most likely drifting down from the Pearl River,” Hong Kong's health secretary York Chow said in early February.

Hong Kong sits at the southern tip of a Guangdong's large Pearl River delta.

Malik Peiris, a virologist at Hong Kong University and one of the world's leading bird flu researchers, said he agreed with Chow's assessment.

“It is not really plausible that they came from Hong Kong,” he told AFP.

While Hong Kong has publicly confirmed 15 bird flu cases this year in addition to the December outbreak on the poultry farm, Guangdong has posted no bird flu findings since June 2008.

“Up to now we have no explanation as to why (bird carcasses have appeared), from the mainland authorities. This is a cause for concern,” said Lo Wing-lok, a member of Hong Kong's government scientific committee on emerging diseases.

Peter Cordingley, the Asia-Pacific spokesman for the World Health Organization, said the appearance of the dead birds was an issue of concern.

“From a public health point of view we are concerned about South China,” he said, adding that Hong Kong's surveillance systems for outbreaks in humans and poultry was the “international gold standard.”

A spokesman for China's health ministry declined to comment.

In early February, a grey heron was found dead in boggy water at the Mai Po nature reserve within sight of the border.

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