June 16, 2006

Hong Kong imposes three-week ban on live poultry from China

The Hong Kong government on Thursday (Jun 15) imposed a ban on live poultry imports from the Chinese mainland following Beijing's confirmation of a bird flu case in southern China's Guangdong Province, Kyodo News reported.

Hong Kong will, from Friday, suspend the imports of live poultry and birds from China for three weeks even though no problem has been found in Chinese poultry and poultry products supplied to Hong Kong, Kyodo said.

"At present, we still cannot clearly grasp the detailed information to confirm the source of infection of the patient in question," Health, Food and Welfare Secretary York Chow said in a statement, according to Kyodo.

Imports of live poultry will resume if no more human cases are found and no bird flu outbreaks occur in the province's chicken farms, Kyodo reported York as saying.

The Chinese Health Ministry earlier Thursday announced the confirmation of the latest suspected bird flu case, a 31-year-old migrant worker in Shenzhen who showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on Jun 3 and has been hospitalised ever since, Kyodo reported.