HONG KONG, Feb 7: Hong Kong health officials on Thursday sought to allay fears over a wave of potentially deadly chicken flu sweeping the territory, saying early tests on the virus show it is not completely identical to a strain which killed six people in 1997.

Environment and Food Secretary Lily Yam said the government had received a “preliminary report” from Hong Kong University indicating the virus matched the so-called H5N1 bug from 1997, but was probably non-fatal variant.

“The virus from the first farm affected proved to be H5N1, but further tests and analysis are being carried out,” she said.

“But it is not the H5N1 that affected us in 1997 and this one is very unlikely to affect human beings. What we are most concerned about is H5N1 ‘97. That was the one that took six lives.”

Experts say the current outbreak was not an “immediate” threat to humans but have not ruled out the virus mutating into a deadly strain.

Some 190,000 chickens have been slaughtered across Hong Kong in an effort to contain the virus after several hundred birds were reported to have died at a farm late last week.

Yam said reports that more chickens had been contaminated Thursday were not true, but admitted health officials had destroyed more than 1,000 chickens at a poultry stall on Wednesday, after a large number of birds died from unknown causes.

“From yesterday afternoon onwards we have received no further reports of unusual chicken deaths in our retail markets.”

From a total of 25 farms placed under quarantine, four farms were found to be infected and these chickens had been destroyed, she said.

Inspections carried by health officials on Wednesday and Thursday had not found any cases of unusual number of chicken deaths on the territory’s farms indicating the virus was not spreading, she said.

The government has ordered the closure of all live poultry stalls in the territory’s markets on Friday to allow disinfection to be carried out. Before re-opening, traders must ensure all chickens have passed health tests.—AFP