The government will ban the holding of live poultry overnight at wet markets [i.e. markets specifically for live produce] from Wednesday next week [2 July], when retailers are scheduled to resume sales following the recent bird flu outbreak.

This comes as the poultry trade was given more time to consider the government's compensation proposals for closing down the business. Janice Wong reports.

[Wong] The health secretary, York Chow, says the government will ask Legco [the Legislative Council] to amend the law next week to allow the new regulation banning the overnight stocking of live chickens to take effect. He said this was the best way to ensure public safety in the face of bird flu for now.

[Chow] The hard fact is that the environment is posing risk to our public health, and that is the reason why we need to do something about it. So the consideration is if we allow live poultry to continue, then we must lower the risk. By lowering the risk we need to ensure that the chickens are being killed every day, so it will not leave any virus in the environment until the next batch of chickens arrives the next day.

[Wong] Under the arrangement, all poultry will have to be slaughtered by eight o'clock each evening, with new stock not allowed into the markets until early next morning. Anyone breaking the new rule will face a maximum fine of 50,000 dollars [approx 6,400 US] and six months imprisonment.

Dr Chow said the government had also decided to allow more time for the trade to reach a consensus on whether they want to continue operating under the new regulation or whether they want to accept the government's compensation package to buy back their licences.

[Chow] We give them up to one month to decide at the retailer level, and because the other trades have to look at the number of remaining retailers before they can make their option, so we give them three months. And after that there wouldn't be any more options.

[Wong] Dr Chow added that the 1bn dollar compensation package would not go ahead if only 50 per cent of the trade agreed to accept it. He would not say exactly what percentage support was needed for the package to go ahead. The health chief just said he hoped it could be close to 90 per cent.

Dr Chow stressed that Hong Kong is still aiming for central slaughtering in 2012. He also revealed that 30 dollars compensation per bird will be given for 400,000 live chickens currently on local farms that have gone beyond the normal age for sale.