The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (December 21) that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Siedlecki District of Mazowieckie Region in Poland and Győr-Moson-Sopron County in Hungary respectively, and a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Korea about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 and H5 avian influenza in Yeongam-gun of Jeollanam-do Province and Buan-gun of Jeollabuk-do Province respectively 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 Hong Kong has currently established a protocol with Hungary for the import of poultry meat but not for poultry eggs. According to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 2 140 tonnes and about 270 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from Poland and Hungary respectively, and about 50 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 23.85 million poultry eggs from Korea in the first nine months of this year.

"The CFS has contacted the Polish, Hungarian 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.