The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 21) that in view of notifications from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan, and outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Ganghwa-gun of Incheon Province and Eumseong-gun of Chungcheongbuk-do Province in Korea, 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 according to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 2 000 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 227.42 million poultry eggs from Japan, and about 20 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 15.52 million poultry eggs from Korea in the first nine months of this year.

"The CFS has contacted the Japanese and Korean 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.