Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced last week that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in County of Stettler No. 6 of the province of Alberta in Canada and Somme Department in France, the CFS has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products, including poultry eggs.

A CFS spokesman said that according to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 60 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from Canada, and about 540 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 25,000 poultry eggs from France in the first six months of this year.

​"The CFS has contacted the Canadian and French authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE and the relevant authorities on the avian influenza outbreaks," said a government spokesperson. "Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation."