HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety (CFS) suspended importing poultry meat and products with immediate effect from Jeollabuk-do Province, Gyeongsangnam-do Province and Daegu Metropolitan City in South Korea, it said here on Tuesday.

The action was in view of the notifications from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the South Korean authorities about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N6 and H5N8 avian influenza in the noted areas, the CFS said.

A CFS spokesman said in the first nine months of this year, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region imported about 77 tons of frozen and chilled poultry meat and 390,000 poultry eggs from South Korea.

The CFS has contacted the South Korean authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on avian influenza outbreaks, the spokesman said.