Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety (CFS) has suspended imports of poultry meat and products, including eggs, from several areas of the United States and the United Kingdom after avian influenza outbreaks. The CFS announced the measure on 5 October with immediate effect, to protect public health.
The suspension follows notifications to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) of highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreaks in Big Stone and Kandiyohi counties in Minnesota, Ravalli County in Montana and Barron County in Wisconsin. It also follows a notification from the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of a highly pathogenic H5N5 outbreak on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
The trade at stake is significant. According to Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department, the city imported about 24,190 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 20.2 million eggs from the US in the first six months of this year. Imports from the UK over the same period were about 340 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat.
"The CFS has contacted the American and British authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the WOAH and the relevant authorities on the avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," a CFS spokesperson said.
Hong Kong's bans are limited to the affected areas, so poultry from the rest of the US and the UK can still be shipped. For exporters, the bans are a reminder of how quickly a single farm outbreak can close a market as the northern-hemisphere bird flu season begins.
Photo: Batholith / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Source: The Poultry Site
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