Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 3/13/18



Chinese officials have suspended imports of poultry meat from parts of Texas, France and Mexico in the wake of outbreaks of avian influenza in three areas.

The food safety authority of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) cited confirmations of low-pathogenic H7N1 bird flu in Hopkins County, Texas, H5N3 in Finestere Department in France and highly pathogenic H7N3 in two states in Mexico for the actions.

Hong Kong imported about 290,000 tons of chilled and frozen poultry meat and 580 million poultry eggs from U.S. sources in 2017, according to a HKSAR spokesperson via a report from Xinhuanet.

Meanwhile, the quarantine of nearly 20,000 turkeys at a Jasper County, Missouri poultry farm continues after confirmation of an outbreak of the H7N1 strain of avian influenza late last week.

A spokesperson for the Missouri Dept. of Agriculture told the Joplin Globe that birds that contract the low-pathogenic strain may show limited or no symptoms. The report noted that the farm is a Butterball contract farm, according to a company spokesperson.

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