Via VOA News: Hong Kong Bird Market Closed After Discovery of Avian Flu. Excerpt:
Hong Kong's famous Bird Garden in the city's busy Mongkok district usually bustles with residents bargaining for exotic birds as pets and with tourists who love the market's lively, colorful atmosphere. Now, a grim-looking guard at the entrance of the market makes sure no one enters.
The shutters of most of the 70 shops are down. A few, mostly elderly, vendors sit around with nothing to do.
They have put up a banner that sums up their feelings.
One of the vendors reads aloud, "This tourist spot has been turned into a ruin."
This woman says that her life is very hard right now. She says she does not have any customers and cannot earn any money.
Hong Kong's health officials closed the bird market about two weeks ago after a starling there was found to be carrying the H5N1 avian flu virus. All birds in that shop were removed and the market vendors were asked to thoroughly clean and disinfect their stalls. Hong Kong's agriculture and fisheries department has been collecting and testing samples from bird stalls to test for avian flu viruses.
Eric Tai, a veterinarian working for the department, said "Our last batch of samples for this exercise was collected earlier this week and if things go well, when everything is negative, showing there is no virus around, when that result comes out, then we will be opening the market again."
