The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (March 3) that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in General Roca Department of the Province of Río Negro in Argentina and Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan 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, Hong Kong imported about 130 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from Argentina, 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 Argentinian 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.