Hong Kong suspends imports of poultry and poultry products from the Utrecht province of the Netherlands.

The Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong announced on March 5 that in response to the report from the World Organization for Animal Health, which indicated an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands, the Centre immediately instructed the industry to temporarily stop importing poultry meat and poultry products from that region to safeguard public health in Hong Kong. A spokesperson for the Centre said that according to data from the government's Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported approximately 370 metric tons of chilled poultry meat from the Netherlands last year.