The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 21) that in view of a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Miyazaki Prefecture and Aomori Prefecture in Japan and a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Lapeer County of the State of Michigan and Queens County of the State of New York in the United States (US), 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 1 260 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 292.13 million poultry eggs from Japan and about 10 650 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 227.48 million poultry eggs from the US in the first nine months of this year.

"The CFS has contacted the Japanese and American 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.