Import bans amid bird flu outbreaks

Hong Kong has suspended the import of poultry meat and eggs from Japan, South Korea, Norway, Netherlands and Poland following severe H5N1 and H5 bird flu outbreaks in Europe and Asia.

The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has put the industry on alert after culls of tens of millions of birds in previous outbreaks.

Outbreaks also often lead to trade restrictions.

Japan notified the Centre for Food Safety about a H5 outbreak in Kagoshima prefecture.

Hong Kong imported about 40 tonnes of chilled poultry meat, 2,530 tonnes of frozen poultry meat, and more than 210 million eggs from Japan in the first nine months of this year.

Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades president Simon Wong Ka-wo said the suspension has yet to affect restaurants as most use mainland eggs.

He said that preference was due to the price of Japanese eggs, which could be up to 100 percent higher.

Wong said it is hard to tell how high the price of Japanese eggs will surge. "If it is too high, restaurants will use eggs from other regions such as the mainland," he added.

According to the Consumer Council's price watch website, Cheer's Japan Sakura Eggs were sold at HK$29.90 in ParknShop as of yesterday - HK$2 lower than the price recorded last Tuesday but a dollar more than at the start of this month.

Japan's agriculture ministry confirmed the highly pathogenic bird flu subtype H5N8 was detected at a poultry farm with about 11,000 egg-laying chickens in Izumi City in Kagoshima prefecture on Monday.

It comes as outbreaks of severe bird flu in Europe and Asia have been reported to the World Organization for Animal Health in recent days, in a sign the virus is spreading quickly again.

The French-based organization has notified the Centre for Food Safety here about H5N1 outbreaks in Korea's Chungcheongbuk-do and Jeollanam-do provinces.

South Korea reported an outbreak at a farm of around 770,000 poultry in Chungcheongbuk-do and all animals were slaughtered.

Hong Kong imported about 10 tonnes of frozen poultry and 280,000 eggs from Korea in the first nine months.

In Europe, Norway reported an H5N1 outbreak in the Rogaland region in a flock of 7,000 birds.

Poultry product imports from Norway's Rogaland county and the province of Groningen in the Netherlands were also suspended.