The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (September 3) that in view of notification from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) about a confirmed case of highly pathogenic H5N6 sub-type avian influenza (HPAI) in the village of Dongyao, Zhoujia Town, Shuangcheng District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, it has followed the existing approach for control of highly pathogenic avian influenza and taken the recommendations from the World Organisation for Animal Health into account to ban the import of poultry and poultry products, including poultry eggs, from the area within a radius of 3 kilometres from the said village for a period of 90 days and from the area within a radius of 13km for 21 days with immediate effect for protection of Hong Kong's public health.
A spokesman for the CFS said that, according to the information provided by the MoA and confirmation from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the outbreak does not affect any registered Mainland poultry farms for export to Hong Kong.
"The AQSIQ has confirmed that no registered poultry meat or poultry egg processing plants are situated within the import restriction zone concerned either. However, the Centre will closely monitor the latest developments of the avian flu case in Heilongjiang Province and take appropriate follow-up action as necessary," the spokesman said.
Ends/Wednesday, September 3, 2014
