November 4, 2005

Hong Kong bans meat import from Chinese province

Hong Kong has banned the import of live chickens and poultry meat from the bird flu-affected northern Chinese province of Liaoning, the government said Friday.

Hong Kong does not import any live poultry from Liaoning, but had imported 13,000 tonnes of poultry meat from the province this year, a statement issued by the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau said.

China's Ministry of Agriculture notified Hong Kong of the Liaoning outbreak late Thursday, the statement said.

Officials have immediately stopped processing all import applications from the province, it said.

The WHO has said eating properly cooked poultry is not believed to be a means of transmitting bird flu. However, likely sources of infection include the handling of infected birds or raw meat, the organisation has said.

The outbreak in Liaoning, which killed about 9,000 chickens, was China's fourth bird flu outbreak in three weeks.