Hong Kong to resume poultry imports from China

HONG KONG, Mar 20 (Reuters) China's southern province of Guangdong will resume live poultry exports to neighbouring Hong Kong on Sunday, ending a three-week moratorium after health experts confirmed that a man in Guangdong had died of bird flu.

The Permanent Secretary of Hong Kong's Health, Welfare and Food Bureau, Carrie Yau, met Guangdong quarantine officials today and ''agreed that we will resume exports of mainland chickens from March 26'', a bureau spokeswoman said.

''There are no human cases and no outbreak of avian influenza there,'' she said.

The birds would be available in Hong Kong markets from the following day, she said.

A daily maximum of 20,000 chickens would be allowed in, or 10,000 less than the limit before the three-week ban. The figure would reviewed in mid-April, she said.

Hong Kong and Guangdong also agreed in principle to resume exports from China of day-old chicks, but had yet to fix a date.

Hong Kong banned the import of live poultry from Guangdong, as well as day-old chicks and pet birds, after the death of a man was confirmed to be from the H5N1 strain of bird flu earlier this month.

China has reported more than 30 outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in birds across the country in the past year. None has been in Guangdong, but Hong Kong has confirmed several cases in birds, fuelling suspicions that authorities were not being truthful about the situation in the populous province.

REUTERS KD PM1327