The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau of Hong Kong is working in coordination with Chinese mainland authorities to ensure maximum safety and quality of poultry imported by Hong Kong from China.
The number of registered poultry farms has been reduced from 300 to about 100 in China so that measures to prevent bird flu on the poultry farms can be deployed effectively.Enforcements and biosecurity measures have been increased since resumption of poultry imports from China since March 26.
China had reported a few cases of human infection of H5N1 and Hong Kong was at its peak influenza period. Therefore stringent security measures like import of live poultry only from registered farms on the mainland, which must be subject to inspection by both Hong Kong and Chinese officials and quarantine of poultry for at least five days before export to China must be followed.
Laboratory tests will also be regularly conducted on samples from live poultry tests at these farms as well as from the wholesale and retail markets.
The bureau also intends to maintain regular contact with Chinese authorities to review these existing stringent safety measures.
