The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (October 28) that in view of a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Lao Cai Province and Dak Nong Province in Vietnam and a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Okayama Prefecture and Hokkaido Prefecture in Japan, 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 Vietnam for the import of poultry eggs but not for poultry meat. According to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 9.3 million poultry eggs from Vietnam and about 1 260 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 292.13 million poultry eggs from Japan in the first nine months of this year.

"The CFS has contacted the Vietnamese and Japanese 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.