The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (May 27) that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Ranchi District of Jharkhand State in India, Morrison County of the State of Minnesota in the United States (US) and Changnyeong-gun of Gyeongsangnam-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 Hong Kong has currently established a protocol with India for the import of poultry eggs but not for poultry meat. According to the Census and Statistics Department, in the first three months of this year, no eggs were imported from India; and Hong Kong imported about 16,480 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 7.73 million poultry eggs from the US, and about 230 kilograms of frozen poultry meat and about 5.94 million poultry eggs from Korea.

"The CFS has contacted the Indian, American 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.