Import of poultry meat and products from areas in Poland, Netherlands and Korea suspended

     The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 25) that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Korea respectively about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in GostyÅ„ski District of Wielkopolskie Region in Poland, Utrecht Province in the Netherlands and Damyang-gun of Jeollanam-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 according to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 4,070 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 24.82 million poultry eggs from Poland, about 730 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from the Netherlands, and about 10 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and 280,000 poultry eggs from Korea in the first nine months of this year.

     "The CFS has contacted the Polish, Dutch and Korean authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE 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.