"Our most important task at present is to cut off the channels of avian influenza transmission."
"First, we must immediately notify the ports in Guangdong and Fujian to prohibit the import and export of live poultry. All chicken farms in these two places must undergo strict quarantine procedures before they can sell live chickens and dressed chickens."
“All employees in the chicken farm, including the owner, must prepare the latest health certificates within three days,” Mr. Lin said, looking at the head of the CDC. “At that time, the CDC staff will give them a green channel and expedite the processing of the relevant certificates.”
"yes."
Despite the crisis, Elder Lin remained calm and said in a composed voice, "Send experts to areas like Liufushan, where the avian influenza outbreak is severe, to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the local farms. After understanding the actual situation, report to the relevant departments in the mainland."
"The third step is to strengthen quarantine measures for chicken farms in the mainland, strictly control the importation of avian influenza, and cull all chickens if any are found."
"If a case of infection is discovered, the safety of people's lives must be ensured first, and the safety of property must be put aside."
People from several departments received orders and were mobilized simultaneously.
Mainland newspapers and media outlets also flocked to Hong Kong, attempting to obtain the latest intelligence.
Due to Hong Kong's extreme policies, any chicken farm in Hong Kong that discovers a single case of infection in live poultry will immediately cull all its poultry.
Due to the successive introduction of extreme policies, many chicken farms that were not infected have closed down one after another due to operational pressures.
The total amount of chicken in the market decreased by no less than 90% instantly, and people could not buy chicken, let alone dare to buy chicken.
In Hong Kong, poached chicken and salt-baked chicken have always been the most popular dishes. Hong Kong people love chicken to the core. Now, the sudden outbreak of fowl plague has greatly affected their lives.
However, for safety reasons, they have to resist the urge to eat even if they really want to.
After all, the hospital has been overwhelmed with patients infected with avian flu, and there were even reports a few days ago that someone had died from avian flu.
People are afraid to take risks when their lives are at stake.
Due to the developed port of Hong Kong, many chicken farms have connections with Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.
Therefore, after the outbreak of avian influenza in Hong Kong, Europe and the United States were also greatly affected, with Southeast Asia being the most severely affected.
The main export products from Europe and the United States are dressed chickens. During the process of plucking and gutting these chickens, they are scalded at high temperatures, which kills a significant number of viruses. Therefore, although there are cases of avian influenza infection on European and American tables, the number is very small and can be controlled.
Southeast Asia, however, has not been so fortunate. Southeast Asia mainly imports dressed chickens and live poultry, and the import volume is extremely large. Live poultry is also highly infectious.
Many chicken farm employees were involved in the packaging and transportation process, so the virus spread to Southeast Asia and South Asia through export channels.
Another relatively large market, Australia, has not yet reported any cases of infection due to its strict customs and quarantine measures.
As news of bird flu in Hong Kong gained traction, customs authorities in various countries introduced policies to temporarily ban the import of live chickens and dressed chickens from Hong Kong. They also mandated that cargo ships that had already departed must destroy all live poultry and dressed chickens on board before passing quarantine and being allowed to dock.
Busy maritime transport has gradually become quiet due to this avian flu outbreak.
While customs authorities in various countries are taking strict precautions against imported cases, customs authorities in mainland China are not idle either.
When Secretary Wang returned from customs, he reported to Elder Lin: "White-feathered chickens and live poultry that Hong Kong is preparing to export to the coast, as well as live poultry that the coast is preparing to export to Hong Kong, are all piled up at customs."
"The pressure on disease control in Guangdong and Fujian is currently immense."
“These live poultry and dressed chickens were piled up at customs, and even those that didn’t originally have avian flu were found to have it.”
Old Lin understood what she meant: a large number of dead animals gathering at the port could easily cause a plague.
Old Lin nodded with difficulty, "You're right, we must evacuate the cargo from the port as soon as possible, otherwise a more serious outbreak will occur."
It's February now, and the weather isn't too cold yet, but it's already spring. In places like Hong Kong, Fujian, and Guangdong, summer comes early and the weather warms up quickly, so we need to prepare as early as possible.
Old Lin solemnly said to Secretary Wang, "Open up the official cold chain warehouses so that the owners of these dressed chickens and live chickens can temporarily store their goods in the government warehouses."
"At the same time, we will have the CDC and the Ministry of Agriculture inspect the goods. After they pass the quarantine, we will have them sell the goods on the spot as soon as possible."
"Understood."
Mr. Lin was well aware of the consequences of selling the birds locally, but he had no choice but to do so in order to control the further spread of bird flu to the mainland.
After the order was issued, farm owners from Hong Kong, Guangdong, Fujian and other places successively delivered their goods to the government warehouse.
Since cold chain warehouses can only store dressed chickens, those big bosses who still control live poultry resources started to use their ingenuity. They simply hired people to boil several large pots of water next to the trucks and slaughtered the live chickens on the spot, turning them into dressed chickens using the most primitive methods.
Chicken merchants, eager to get started, lined up to deliver all the dressed chickens they had to the official warehouse.
Because the authorities had ordered that dressed chickens not leave the province, merchants could only sell them locally. So this batch of dressed chickens was inspected one by one by quarantine personnel shortly after entering the warehouse, and then resold to various markets.
Because the stock of dressed chickens in coastal areas has increased several times over, merchants are unable to sell their chickens and have no choice but to gradually lower prices.
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