The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced on December 9 that in view of notifications from the General Veterinary Inspectorate of Poland, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Korea and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in Grodzisk District, Wielkopolskie Region and Słupsk District, Pomorskie Region of Poland; Yeoju-si, Gyeonggi-do Province of Korea; and Landes Department of France respectively, 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, in the first nine months of this year, Hong Kong imported about 9,900 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 21.32 million poultry eggs from Poland; about 740 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 8.9 million poultry eggs from Korea; and about 8,740 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 1.1 million poultry eggs from France.

"The CFS has contacted the Polish, Korean and French authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE 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.

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