HONG KONG / TOKYO - Hong Kong announced on Thursday the suspension of the import of poultry meat and products from Kagawa following an outbreak of H5 avian influenza in the western Japanese prefecture.

The suspension takes effect immediately, said a spokesperson for the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in a statement issued in the afternoon.

Hong Kong imported about 50 tons of chilled poultry meat, 4,300 tons of frozen poultry meat and about 200 million poultry eggs from Japan in the first nine months of this year, according to data from Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department.

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Hong Kong imported about 50 tons of chilled poultry meat and about 200 million poultry eggs from Japan in the first nine months of this year, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department

"The CFS has contacted the Japanese authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the World Organisation for Animal Health on the avian influenza outbreaks," the spokesperson said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Japanese government said an outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian flu had been confirmed at a chicken farm in Kagawa.

Kagawa Governor Keizo Hamada said around 330,000 chickens at the farm would be culled to prevent the spread of the disease. It is the first bird flu outbreak in Japan since an outbreak in the same prefecture in January 2018.

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Hamada said he plans to enlist the help of Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) for the culling, which is expected to take 10 days.

The outbreak was confirmed after the farm in Mitoyo city reported almost 4,000 chickens had died between Sunday and Wednesday.

The prefecture has since banned the transport of chickens and eggs within a three-kilometer radius of the farm.

Shipments from the area within a 10-km radius of the farm are also being restricted, officials said.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has asked poultry farmers nationwide to be on the alert for other possible outbreaks, local media reported.

"The government will work as one and take full-blown measures to prevent the spread of infection," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a Cabinet meeting with regard to the outbreak.

With Xinhua inputs