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In view of confirmed H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in Ningxia Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province, a spokesman for the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau tonight (November 22) announced that the Government has suspended the processing of applications for the importation of poultry and poultry meat from the two regions with immediate effect.
In addition, the spokesman said an outbreak near Urumqi, Xinjiang Autonomous Region was also confirmed by the Ministry of Agriculture. As Xinjiang has outbreaks since June, poultry meat imports or applications from the region have been suspended.
The spokesman said: "Of the three regions, there were only small quantity of frozen poultry meats imported to Hong Kong from Ningxia.
"We will keep a close watch on the development in the three regions in the next few weeks."
Ends/Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Issued at HKT 22:06
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