Hong Kong launches chicken cull

Hong Kong Agriculture Ministry workers began the cull of 15, 000 chickens on Wednesday.

The mass slaughter follows the discovery of the H7 strain of bird flu in a batch of live animals imported from Guangdong.

All imports of live poultry from mainland China to Hong Kong have been halted for three weeks.

Chickens at this market were put into large bins which were then filled with carbon dioxide.

Afterwards the dead birds were loaded into bags.

The market traders are only allowed to sell frozen chickens for now which some say is bad for business.

(SOUNDBITE) (Cantonese) CHICKEN SELLER CHOW HON-LING SAYING:

"The impact is very big. Eighty to 90 per cent of our business is affected because we can't get live chickens. The impact is huge."

It's the second cull of chickens this year in Hong Kong.

In January 20,000 were slaughtered when birds imported from the mainland were found with the H7N9 flu strain.