The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (October 31) that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Broadland District of Norfolk County in the United Kingdom (UK) and Jincheon-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 940 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 230 000 poultry eggs from the UK, and about 10 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 3.5 million poultry eggs from Korea in the first nine months of this year.

"The CFS has contacted the British 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.