Avian-influenza zoning turns origin data into an immediate poultry-trade requirement

Hong Kong’s suspension for defined areas in the United States and the United Kingdom shows how an avian outbreak can rapidly become a trade issue of geographic precision. On 5 October, Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety ordered the immediate suspension of imports of poultry meat and products, including eggs, from two counties in Minnesota, one county in Montana, one county in Wisconsin and the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. The decision followed notifications of highly pathogenic H5N1 and H5N5 avian influenza.