The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 11) that in view of notifications from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Korea about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N9 avian influenza in Jangheung-gun of Jeonnam-Gwangju and an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Yeoju-si of Gyeonggi-do Province in Korea, and a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in the Province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, 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 80 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 11.48 million poultry eggs from Korea, and about 790 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from the Netherlands in the first nine months of this year.
"The CFS has contacted the Korean and Dutch 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.