Dan Neville
Question:120 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the details of the report received in his Department of contamination of poultry products imported from Far Eastern countries since the beginning of 1998. [19759/98]
Written Answers. - Food Contamination.
My Department is not aware of any report of contamination of poultry products imported from Far Eastern countries, apart from one received in January 1998 in relation to an outbreak of avian influenza in Hong Kong which affected live birds. At a standing veterinary committee meeting on 7 January, which was attended by representatives of my Department, the EU Commission gave details of an outbreak of avian flu in Hong Kong transmissible from birds to humans. Sixteen cases of the virus were confirmed in humans, four of whom died. Hong Kong took stringent measures to deal with the outbreak including the slaughtering of all poultry, a total of 1.3 million birds. Immediate action was taken by the EU which banned all imports of live birds from Hong Kong and mainland China. As neither Hong Kong nor China were approved for the export of live poultry to the EU, the ban affected cage birds only. Neither Hong Kong nor China are approved for the export of poultry meat and poultry meat products to the EU.