Hong Kong suspends poultry imports from Russia, Netherlands and UK

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in Hong Kong has suspended the imports of poultry meat and products from certain areas in the UK, Russia and the Netherlands.

The decision was announced after a notification was released by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about the outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza.

According to the OIE statement, the H5N8 avian influenza outbreak was identified in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Samarskaya Oblast in Russia; Groningen, the Netherlands; and Herefordshire, UK.

CFS has instructed companies to immediately suspend poultry meat and eggs imports from the aforementioned areas to protect public health in Hong Kong.

A CFS spokesman said: “The CFS has contacted the Russian, Dutch and British authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on the avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation.”

The spokesman added that the country has established a protocol with Russia for the import of poultry meat, which does not include poultry eggs.

During the first nine months of this year, Hong Kong imported 142t of frozen poultry meat from Russia, according to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.

In the same period, the country imported nearly 4,600t of frozen poultry meat from the Netherlands and approximately 8,700t of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 330,000 poultry eggs from the UK.

In March 2018, CFS suspended imports of poultry and other meat products from certain locations in the US, France and Mexico, after a notification was released by OIE.

According to the OIE statement, an outbreak of low-pathogenic H7N1 avian influenza was identified in Hopkins County, Texas, US, and a low-pathogenic H5N3 avian influenza was discovered in Finistère Department in France.

OIE noted an outbreak of highly pathogenic H7N3 avian influenza was noticed in Guanajuato and Queretaro, Mexico.