Guangdong slaughters chickens after virus found in export to HK

Authorities in Huizhou City in south China's Guangdong Province said Friday that it had slaughtered 13,000 chickens on a poultry farm, as its exports to Hong Kong were found to be infected with the deadly H7N9 virus.

Hong Kong authorities said on Wednesday that it would cull 15,000 chickens at the Cheung Sha Wan Market following the latest discovery of the deadly H7N9 virus in poultry imported from Guangdong.

Authorities in Huizhou traced the infected birds to the Guangdong Lyufeng Poultry Farm, and culled its stock. An immediate inspection was also made in some 1,000 poultry farms in the city. The virus has not been detected in some 7.68 million samples from the farms.

Hong Kong has raised its response level in hospitals to "serious" from "alert", after a 68-year-old woman was hospitalized in Hong Kong on Dec. 25, and tested positive for avian influenza, the region's first since early 2014. The woman arrived from the neighboring mainland city of Shenzhen almost two weeks earlier.