Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced yesterday that it has suspended imports of poultry meat and poultry products, including eggs, from the region of Gunma Prefecture in Japan. The suspension is the result of an outbreak of highly pathogenic influenza. It was issued in order to protect public health, according to the authorities. 

A CFS spokesperson said that according to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 1,080 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 200.84 million poultry eggs from Japan in the first nine months of last year.

"The CFS has contacted the Japanese authority over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the World Organisation for Animal Health and the relevant authorities on the avian influenza outbreak. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesperson said.