The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (October 29) that in view of notifications from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Niigata Prefecture in Japan, and outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Tulare County of the State of California and Franklin County of the State of Washington in the United States (US), 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 1,170 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 150.45 million poultry eggs from Japan, and about 40,950 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 13.86 million poultry eggs from the US in the first six months of this year.

The CFS has contacted the Japanese and American 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.