HONG KONG, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Food safety authority of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) decided Wednesday to suspend import of poultry products from Landes Department in southwestern France over an outbreak of bird flu.
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the HKSAR government's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said that in view of a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about an outbreak of low-pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza in Landes, it has instructed the trade to suspend 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 nine months of last year, Hong Kong imported about 10,700 tons of chilled and frozen poultry meat and 7 million poultry eggs from France.
"The CFS has contacted French authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.
