Updated: 2005-11-04 17:17

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong Health, Welfare and Food Bureau announced Friday that the government has suspended processing applications for importation of live poultry and poultry meat from Liaoning Province of the Mainland.

A spokesman for the Bureau said that they received notificationabout an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak among poultry in Hei Shan County of Liaoning Province from the Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday.

The bureau immediately stopped processing live poultry and poultry meat import applications upon receiving the notification.

Up to Oct. 25 this year, Hong Kong had imported 13,000 tons of poultry meat from Liaoning Province and has not imported any live poultry from there.

The spokesman said they will continue to monitor the situation in the coming weeks.