Date: Jan 30th 2014 4:02p.m.

Contributed by:
cityweekend

If you haven’t been paying attention to local regional news lately, cases of the H7N9 bird flu virus is slowly on the rise with the confirmation that a 75-year-old man died of the flu virus Wednesday morning in Hong Kong, as reported by Xinhua.net. He was the fourth confirmed case of a human infected with the virus. Eight new human H7N9 cases were reported on Tuesday, bringing the total number across the country to 110 this year. Twenty deaths were reported in January with half all known infections have occured in Zhejiang province. Prior to the latest death HK death, Guangdong closed live poultry markets in order to test for viruses. As of current, the Hong Kong government has suspended “poultry import from the mainland and live poultry sales on local markets for at least three weeks.”

Especially now as the Spring Festival has arrived, chicken has been a main element to feasting and has been causing some difficult times to vendors and consumers alike as reported by China Daily:

Spring Festival is the hottest season for selling chickens. We sell an average of 5,000 kilograms of chickens every day,” said Dai Chunjiao, who has been selling live chickens in Hangzhou Huadong Poultry Market, one of the largest poultry trade centers in the [capital of Zhejiang, Hangzhou] for more than 10 years.

 

Now since the market is closed, there is no business.  What is more, we still have to feef the chickens, which is a big expense,” she said, adding that this year will be her most difficult Spring Festival yet.”

 

One customer said, “It is out tradition to sacrifice to the ancestors on New Year’s Eve with a number of dishes. Steamed chicken is one of the most important. Frozen ones are not fresh enough …