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Macau Bans Chicken from Lisbon

Last week, Macau prohibited the import of chicken meat and related products—including eggs—from the Lisbon district following cases of avian influenza. Hong Kong implemented a similar measure.

“Import requests for chicken meat and related products from areas with avian influenza outbreaks will not be approved,” stated the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) in a statement expressing concern about avian flu outbreaks not only in Portugal but also in Hungary and South Korea.

Hours earlier, Hong Kong had also moved to “protect public health” after receiving notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health, taking the same precaution in a region that imported approximately 110 tons of frozen chicken from Portugal in the first nine months of 2024.

“On January 3, a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak was confirmed at a laying hen farm in the municipality of Sintra, Lisbon district,” read a note issued on Monday in Portugal by the Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Affairs (DGAV).

Control and eradication measures have already been implemented, including inspection of the affected site, culling of infected animals, and cleaning of the facilities. Restrictions on movement have also been imposed, and poultry farms within a 10-kilometer radius of the outbreak are under restriction. DGAV has urged all operators to report any suspected cases of the disease, emphasizing that early detection of outbreaks is “essential for the swift implementation of control measures.”

Meanwhile, Portugal’s Directorate-General of Health notes that no cases of humans exhibiting symptoms or signs suggestive of H5N1 infection, the virus detected in Sintra, have been reported. It also stresses that transmission of this virus to humans is a “rare event,” with only sporadic cases recorded globally, and that “the virus is not transmitted through the consumption of poultry meat.”

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