Hong Kong bans Chinese poultry imports after bird flu death

Poultry imports from part of southern China remain banned in Hong Kong following the death of a man with the same strain of the disease to the version found in wild birds in the city.

The import of live, chilled and frozen poultry, and eggs, from within a 13-kilometer (8-mile) radius of the man’s home in Shenzhen were suspended for 21 days starting Jan. 1, according to a Centre for Food Safety statement.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department is conducting further tests on two dead black-headed gulls, found in Tuen Mun and Lantau Island in Hong Kong which tested positive for the virus.

Hong Kong slaughtered 19,451 birds, including more than 15,000 chickens, a few weeks ago after the H5N1 virus was found in a chicken carcass at a local wholesale market.

Source: Bloomberg