The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (June 1) that the Starling found earlier in Mong Kok was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests.

The Starling was collected at 101-109 Boundary Street on May 26 by AFCD staff following a public referral.

A department spokesman reminded the public to observe good personal hygiene.

"They should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry and clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them," he said.
Starling tests positive for H5N1 virus
Another case from real near the bird markets.
A species that's mainly a winter visitor to Hong Kong, and then found in rural areas (especially Mai Po), and is so hard to find now it's summer that even records of one bird are "news" in local birding world.

Daft to suggest avoiding contact with wild birds!

Another H5N1 casualty in Hong Kong - a Common or Black-billed Magpie found at Sha Tin (a new town/city to the north of Kowloon). Fits previous pattern - likely a wild bird, but scavenger, as others in crow family.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said today (June 8) that the Common Magpie found earlier in Sha Tin was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests.

The carcass of the bird was collected at 13 Jat Min Chuen Street, Sha Tin on May 31 by department staff following a public referral.
Common Magpie tests positive for H5N1 virus

After several h5n1 records indicating bird markets in Kowloon are source of H5N1 (in turn from markets in China?), now a positive result from bird in the market:

The H5N1 virus has been detected in a daurian starling faecal swab sample taken from a pet shop in Yuen Po Street Bird Garden in Mong Kok.

The Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department tonight temporarily closed the shop and took its birds for observation and further testing. It also ordered all nearby bird shops to undergo thorough cleansing.

The sample was collected on June 4 under the department's routine avian influenza surveillance programme.

The Leisure & Cultural Services Department will enhance cleansing of the Bird Garden, and the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department will boost street cleaning near it.

The Centre for Health Protection has put all stall operators and workers under medical surveillance. It has launched a hotline (2125 1122) to provide health advice to people who may have recently visited bird pet shops.
Bird sample H5N1-positive

Another winter arrives, another report of dead wild bird with H5N1. Little egret mostly resident here; Tuen Mun an urban area, near some places w farms (where can wonder if receive smuggled poultry, toss any that die into nearby creeks, where might be scavenged).
A little egret found in a Hong Kong park has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, the government said on Saturday.

The bird was collected at the Tuen Mun Park in the New Territories on Nov. 18, the city's agriculture, fisheries and conservation department said in a brief statement.
Hong Kong finds egret with bird flu in city park

After perhaps six dead herons or egrets and a dead common buzzard found in Hong Kong and shown to have H5N1 this winter, I posted this to HK Birdw Soc forum:

Indeed intriguing re just how these herons/egrets have been infected.

If not scavenging bird corpses (with Grey Heron before, I've wondered re scavenging dead chickens tossed into creeks),
then perhaps from water - but why so few individuals, why not ducks (which we know can readily catch n spread wild bird flus - Anatidae evidently being chief reservoirs of these wild flus)?
From fish, with sufficient virus in stomachs?? (maybe after eating poultry manure, offal from infected poultry?)

Had a bit of correspondence w HK food n hygiene bureau, after I sent missive complaining re latest Mai Po Nature Reserve closure [after a dead egret/heron w h5n1 was found nearby], saying it was knee jerk reaction.

Joyce Kok replied, inc:
the fact that HPAI virus can be transmitted from wild birds to humans directly or indirectly through contaminatedmaterials.

I replied:

"HPAI virus can be transmitted from wild birds to humans directly or indirectly through contaminated materials."

- any evidence for this.

...

.,..

thought not

- and eventually received:
Thank you for your two emails dated 10 March 2008 and thanks again for your
concern on the control of avian influenza measures.

The H5N1 virus we isolated from wild birds in Hong Kong has so far proved
to be highly pathogenic avian influenza virus which can be lethal. As we
could not ignore the possibility that the virus could be transmitted from
wild birds to humans directly or indirectly through contaminated materials,
it would be necessary for the administration to introduce measures to
reduce such risk.

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused to you during the closure of Mai
Po Nature Reserve.
to which, I've just responded:
Thank you for your email, in which you support my belief there is no scientific basis for closing Mai Po because a dead bird or two with H5N1 has been found nearby.

"we could not ignore the possibility that the virus could be transmitted from wild birds to humans directly or indirectly through contaminated materials"
- this is vague and woolly minded. Not remotely scientific.

As is clear from evidence worldwide, the H5N1 variant of concern is primarily a poultry disease. And whilst the administration has done much to reduce the incidence in local poultry, and associated markets (such as the bird market), we have not lately seen such draconian measures as closure taken recently.

As you should be aware, no wild bird species is known to be capable of surviving, sustaining and spreading H5N1 poultry flu.
It is highly lethal to wild birds, so an infected bird soon sickens, and dies, swiftly ending a potential chain of transmission.

Despite extensive testing, not one apparently healthy wild bird has tested positive for H5N1 poultry flu in Hong Kong.
The dead wild (and "wild" - for some individuals surely or probably from captivity) birds found in Hong Kong that tested positive for h5n1 have been from scattered locations. Despite the bird concentrations at Mai Po, and surveillance there, is it just one case from Mai Po over the years? - in turn, suggesting H5N1 is rare in wild birds, but overwhelmingly outside the reserve.
You might wish to consider just how and where these birds may have contracted the virus - scavenging dead, dumped poultry (smuggled in, so with chance of h5n1), or infected songbirds from captivity?

Especially with birdwatching not involving contact with wild birds, and no case worldwide (that I'm aware of) of a person thought to have contracted h5n1 from a wild bird, there is and was no discernible risk to Mai Po visitors.

Thus, knee-jerk reaction would indeed seem an appropriate description for the Mai Po closures.
I've also sent Joyce a copy of my article on the Tooth Fairy Bird: the much mooted yet never discovered bird species that can survive and sustain and spread h5n1 poultry flu.