The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 14) that in view of notifications from the Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Komárom-Esztergom County in Hungary, as well as in the Veneto region of the Province of Treviso and the Lombardia region of the Province of Mantua in Italy, the CFS has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products (including poultry eggs) from the above-mentioned areas with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.

A CFS spokesman said that Hong Kong has currently established a protocol with Hungary for the import of poultry meat but not for poultry eggs. According to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 150 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from Hungary, and about 120 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 20,000 poultry eggs from Italy in the first nine months of this year.

"The CFS has contacted the Hungarian and Italian authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the WOAH and the relevant authorities on the avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.