The Centre for Food Safety of the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced on December 11 that in response to a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, the Centre immediately instructed the industry to suspend imports of poultry meat and poultry products (including eggs) from the region to protect public health in Hong Kong in response to a notification from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries about the outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Ehime Prefecture in Japan. A spokesman for the Centre said that according to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 2,000 tonnes of refrigerated poultry meat and about 227.42 million poultry eggs from Japan in the first nine months of this year. The spokesman said, “The Centre has contacted the Japanese authorities about the incident and will continue to closely monitor the news of the bird flu outbreak issued by the World Organization for Animal Health and relevant authorities and take appropriate action in response to the development of the local outbreak.”