Import of poultry and poultry products from areas in the Mainland, Japan and Poland suspended

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     The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (December 28) that in view of a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture about a confirmed case of highly pathogenic H5N6 sub-type avian influenza in Yining City of Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, it has followed the existing approach for control of highly pathogenic avian influenza and taken recommendations from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) into account to ban the import of poultry and poultry products, including poultry eggs, from an area within a radius of 3 kilometres from the said place for a period of 90 days, and from an area within a radius of 13km for 21 days, with immediate effect for the protection of public health in Hong Kong.

    A spokesman for the CFS said that, according to information from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the outbreak does not affect any registered Mainland poultry farms or registered poultry meat processing plants for export to Hong Kong. Currently, there is a registered poultry egg farm and poultry egg processing plant for export in Yining City.

     Furthermore, in view of a notification from the Japanese authorities about an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, and a notification from the OIE about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in Miechowski and Proszowicki Counties of Poland, the CFS has banned the import of poultry meat and products (including poultry eggs) from the areas with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.

     The CFS spokesman said that in the first 10 months of this year, Hong Kong imported about 6 000 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and 40.6 million poultry eggs from Japan, and about 16 400 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and 4.8 million poultry eggs from Poland.

     "The CFS has contacted the Mainland, Japanese and Polish authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information on avian influenza outbreaks issued by the OIE. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.

Ends/Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Issued at HKT 19:54

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