The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (December 20) that in view of a notification from the Swedish Board of Agriculture about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Simrishamn Municipality in Skåne County and the extension of a restricted area to the adjacent Tomelilla Municipality in Sweden, and notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Gers Department in France, Wesel District in the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany, and Iławski District of Warmińsko-Mazurskie Region in Poland, 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 680 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from Sweden; about 40 tonnes of chilled poultry meat, about 3 920 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 240 000 poultry eggs from France; about 430 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 800 000 poultry eggs from Germany; and about 4 070 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 24.82 million poultry eggs from Poland in the first nine months of this year.

     "The CFS has contacted the Swedish, French, German and Polish 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.

Ends/Monday, December 20, 2021
Issued at HKT 17:05

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