New bird flu case in Hong Kong
A sick egret found in Hong Kong last week has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, agricultural officials said here Saturday
Laboratory tests confirmed the bird, found last Sunday in a park in the New Territories area, was infected with the killer strain, authorities said. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department warned in a statement of personal contact with wild birds and live poultry.
More than a dozen wild birds have been discovered sick or dead in Hong Kong this year with H5N1, which has killed more than 200 people and ravaged poultry flocks worldwide since 2003. Migratory birds have been blamed for the global spread of the disease.
Biologists believe local species of wild birds found dead with the virus could have picked it up from contact with infected flocks in nearby mainland China, where it is believed the strain first mutated into a form deadly to humans.
Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died.
