Macau Bans Live Chicken Sales, Ready to Cull 10,000 Birds after Man Infected with H7N9 Virus

City’s first confirmed human infection with avian flu sees 58-year-old man and his wife quarantined and emergency operation to disinfect wholesale market

Macau has banned the sale of live chickens for the next three days and is prepared to cull 10,000 birds at a wholesale market after reporting its first confirmed human infection with avian flu.

A 58-year-old man who owns a poultry stall at the wholesale market was diagnosed with the H7N9 virus after two samples from a batch of chickens he had handled tested positive, Macau’s health bureau announced at an emergency press conference at 1am on Wednesday morning, local media reported.

The man, who has yet to show any symptoms of the virus, has been quarantined at Centro Hospitalar Conde de São Januário along with his wife.

The bureau also named a truck driver from mainland China who they said had also been in contact with the infected chickens. Macau authorities notified mainland health officials after it was found the man had already returned to the mainland.

None of the infected chickens was sold on the market, according to the bureau. Health authorities have begun a large-scale operation to disinfect the site and are set to destroy the remaining 10,000 live birds there.

José Maria da Fonseca Tavares, chairman of the administration committee of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, said lifting the ban on live chicken sales would depend on the results of an investigation to determine the source of the chickens.

(Source: SCMP.com)