HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s food safety authority decided on Monday to suspend the importation of poultry meat and products from Hyogo prefecture in Japan due to a bird flu outbreak.
In a statement, the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said it announced the suspension after getting a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Hyogo.
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan notified the CFS about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Hyogo
“The CFS has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products (including poultry eggs) from the area with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong,” the statement reads.
According to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 1,260 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 292.13 million poultry eggs from Japan in the first nine months of this year, a CFS spokesman said.
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"The CFS has contacted the Japanese authority over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the World Organisation for Animal Health and the relevant authorities on the avian influenza outbreak,” he added.