Import of poultry meat and products from areas in Japan, UK and Korea suspended

     The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (December 14) that in view of notifications from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Shiga Prefecture and highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, and the notifications from the British Consulate-General in Hong Kong and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Korea respectively about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in the Breckland District, and King's Lynn & West Norfolk District of Norfolk County in the United Kingdom (UK); and Jangseong-gun of Jeollanam-do Province of 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 according to the Census and Statistics Department, in the first nine months of this year, Hong Kong imported about 50 tonnes of chilled poultry meat, about 4,300 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 200 million poultry eggs from Japan; about 8,700 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 330,000 poultry eggs from the UK; and about 740 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 8.9 million poultry eggs from Korea.
     
     "The CFS has contacted the Japanese, British and Korean authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the World Organisation for Animal Health 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.