The Hong Kong food safety authority said on Tuesday that it has banned the import of poultry meat and products from a county in southeastern Poland.
In view of a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in Przemyski County of Poland, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has banned the import of poultry meat and products, including poultry eggs, from the area with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.
A CFS spokesman said that in the first 10 months of this year, Hong Kong imported about 16,400 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and 4.8 million poultry eggs from Poland.
"The CFS has contacted the Polish authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on avian influenza outbreaks in the country concerned. Appropriate actions will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.
