The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (January 2) 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 Calvados Department and Eure Department in France, and outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Aichi Prefecture and Iwate Prefecture in Japan, 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 1 310 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 120 000 poultry eggs from France, and about 2 000 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 227.42 million poultry eggs from Japan in the first nine months of last year.
"The CFS has contacted the French 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.
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