Hong Kong suspends import of poultry products from areas in Japan, Netherlands
Xinhua
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HONG KONG, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's food safety authority decided on Friday to suspend the import of poultry meat and products from Oita Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture in Japan, and the Province of Zuid-Holland in the Netherlands due to the bird flu outbreaks in these places.

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products, including poultry eggs, from these areas with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.
The CFS said this was in view of notifications from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Oita Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture, and from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in the Province of Zuid-Holland.
A CFS spokesman said according to the Census and Statistics Department of the HKSAR government, in the first nine months of this year, Hong Kong imported about 50 tons of chilled poultry meat, about 4,300 tons of frozen poultry meat and about 200 million poultry eggs from Japan and about 4,600 tons of frozen poultry meat from the Netherlands.
"The CFS has contacted the Japanese and Dutch 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.