Hong Kong has suspended imports of poultry meat and poultry products from part of South Korea after an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N9 bird flu, the city's food safety authority announced on Monday, 9 November 2026.

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) said the suspension covers Yeoncheon-gun in Gyeonggi-do Province, where the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) reported the outbreak. It applies to poultry meat and products, including poultry eggs, and took effect immediately.

The move follows confirmation of the virus at a laying-hen farm in Yeoncheon, near South Korea's border with North Korea. South Korean authorities said the outbreak was confirmed on 4 November at a farm keeping about 91,000 birds, and the flock was culled as a precaution. WOAH put the flock size at 90,986 birds in its report, which was issued on Friday.

The Yeoncheon case is the first highly pathogenic bird flu detection at a domestic poultry farm in South Korea in the 2026-27 winter season. After confirmation, quarantine authorities ordered a 24-hour nationwide standstill for poultry farms and related facilities, and began testing farms within 10 kilometres of the affected site.

Imports from Korea are small but eggs matter

Hong Kong's suspension is a precautionary trade measure of the kind that routinely follows WOAH notifications of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The CFS said it had contacted the Korean authorities and would monitor information from WOAH and the relevant authorities, taking further action as the situation develops.

The trade involved is modest on the meat side but larger for eggs. According to Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department, the city imported about 80 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and about 11.48 million poultry eggs from Korea in the first nine months of this year.

South Korean quarantine officials have also stepped up disinfection across the country, designating 4 to 17 November as a nationwide intensive disinfection period for poultry premises. The virus was detected after the farm owner reported rising deaths among the hens to the regional animal health laboratory, which confirmed H5N9 after detailed testing.

US areas suspended in the same announcement

The same Hong Kong announcement suspended poultry imports from several areas of the United States affected by highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu. The affected areas are Dickey County in North Dakota, Roseau County in Minnesota, Cedar County in Nebraska, Greeley County in Kansas, Hanson County in South Dakota and Clinton County in Illinois.

Hong Kong imported far more poultry from the United States than from Korea in the first nine months of this year: about 33,270 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 92.33 million poultry eggs, according to the Census and Statistics Department figures quoted by the CFS.

The CFS said it had contacted the American authorities as well and would keep the situation under review. Import suspensions of this kind are normally lifted area by area once the WOAH and the exporting country confirm that an outbreak has been contained and the required waiting period has passed.

Highly pathogenic H5N9 is a strain of avian influenza that can spread rapidly among birds and cause severe disease in poultry flocks. The Hong Kong measures are aimed at keeping infected poultry products out of the food chain while the outbreaks in Korea and the United States are brought under control.