Hong Kong reports that dead robin tests positive for bird flu

HONG KONG (AP)--Hong Kong officials said Jan. 19 they found a dead oriental magpie robin that tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus--the first such case in one year.

The robin, native to Hong Kong, was found Jan. 10 at a village near the border with mainland China, said Dr. Thomas Sit, acting director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation.

Sit said the robin--with a blue head and a white breast--was possibly infected by migratory water birds. But he added that there was no evidence that the virus was spreading to Hong Kong farms.

"So far, our staff has patrolled all the poultry farms in Hong Kong and have found no abnormal signs of avian flu," said Sit, adding that officials would step up the surveillance of birds.

Hong Kong farms have been preparing for the possibility of migratory birds infecting their poultry with H5N1. Farmers have been installing nets to keep the wild birds from mixing with their chickens and ducks.

Sit said that in the past year officials have collected about 9,000 wild birds and analyzed them for H5N1 infection. The last infection was found on Jan. 10, 2005, and involved a dead heron, Sit said.

Bird flu has killed hundreds of millions of chickens and ducks since it started spreading across Asia in 2003. The virus has jumped from poultry to people, killing at least 79 people in east Asia and Turkey.

Hong Kong has largely been spared during the latest round of bird flu in Asia. But the Chinese territory recorded the first known cases of H5N1 in humans in 1997, when the virus infected 18 people and killed six.

Date:1/25/06