The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (January 30) that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the General Veterinary Inspectorate of Poland about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality of Gauteng Province in South Africa and Głubczycki District of Opolskie Region in Poland respectively, and a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Miyagi 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 South Africa for the import of poultry meat but not for poultry eggs. According to the Census and Statistics Department, no poultry meat was imported into Hong Kong from South Africa last year. Moreover, Hong Kong imported about 2,680 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 15.73 million poultry eggs from Poland and about 1,780 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 413.15 million poultry eggs from Japan last year.

"The CFS has contacted the South African, Polish 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.