MICHELLE HAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Hong Kong government is taking tough measures to stop the spread of a bird flu outbreak, calling for the slaughter of more than one million chickens across the territory. CNN's Mike Chinoy has been tracking the story and joins us now with an update. Mike, what's the story.</s>MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Michelle, a couple of hours ago, Hong Kong's secretary of environment announced that all poultry in the territory, chickens, ducks, geese and quail, will be destroyed over the next two weeks. The reason is to completely wipe out all traces of the so- called bird flu. This is a virus, which normally only affects poultry, but four years ago, it crossed over in to humans, and six people died here in Hong Kong. At that time, the government was criticized for not moving fast enough. This time, the government says it's not going to take any chances, and it will simply eliminate all poultry in the territory to ensure that there is no trace of the disease left.</s>HAN: His has there been a reaction that this is an overreaction by the Hong Kong government, 1.2 million birds.</s>CHINOY: Well, the danger here is that this kind of virus -- it's called H5N1 -- if it mutates into a form which crosses over into humans, There is no immunity, and what epidemiologist fear is that this could spread and has the potential to become a global pandemic. So cutting it off at the source is the best way to prevent that risk from happening.</s>HAN: Mike Chinoy, thank you for joining us. END TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Hong Kong Government Taking Tough Measures to Stop Spread of Bird Flu Outbreak