The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced on January 25 that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Korea about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in Wittmund District of the State of Niedersachsen in Germany, Haute-Garonne Department in France and Icheon-si of Gyeonggi-do Province in Korea, and a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Toyama 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 according to the Census and Statistics Department, in the first nine months of last year, Hong Kong imported about 2,500 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 880,000 poultry eggs from Germany; about 8,740 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 1.1 million poultry eggs from France; about 50 tonnes of chilled poultry meat, about 4,300 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 200 million poultry eggs from Japan; and about 740 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 8.9 million poultry eggs from Korea.

"The CFS has contacted the German, French, Japanese and Korean 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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