The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong said on Saturday, January 6, that this bird – a local species called the
scaly-breasted munia – was the only one of six dead birds found that tested positive for the deadly
bird flu virus.
Hong Kong was the scene of the world’s first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997. Six people died of the then unknown mutation of the avian flu virus. Millions of poultry were culled.