However, because the border with the rest of China is now increasingly porous, thousands of chickens are smuggled into Hong Kong daily, according to reports in local newspapers. Meanwhile, detailed genetic testing of the virus found in seven victims has been done by the CDC in Atlanta. Thousands of blood tests, hundreds of interviews and throat cultures of relatives and acquaintances of flu victims have been taken in an effort to determine the precise transmission of the virus. And while the cases are too recent for officials to be certain how the children contracted the virus, Dr. Chan said that they probably caught it from the first victim. Both were reported in satisfactory condition at a local hospital.
Kids are in much more contact with other kids.
While the epicenter of the new influenza strain is not certain, most scientists here believe it originated in the chicken farms of neighboring Guangdong Province, from where 80,000 to 100,000 chickens are brought into Hong Kong daily. At the wholesale market where Chow has worked for 40 years, all of the birds come from outside Hong Kong. Under the scream of jumbo jets banking toward Hong Kong's airport, Chow said that for the first time in his work with chickens he was alarmed. We sell 3,000 chickens a day. The chickens started dying on Dec. 12.