Dead wild bird in Hong Kong tests positive
The government has confirmed that a dead wild bird has tested positive for fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu. The bird was found in Hong Kong’s busy shopping area of Causeway Bay on 31 December.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong said on Saturday, January 6, that this bird – a local species called the scaly-breasted munia – was the only one of six dead birds found that tested positive for the deadly bird flu virus.
Hong Kong was the scene of the world’s first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997. Six people died of the then unknown mutation of the avian flu virus. Millions of poultry were culled.
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