Bird flu suspensions move to county level: Hong Kong and Singapore restrict US and Canadian poultry

H5N1 import suspensions are now being applied county by county rather than country by country, so importers should verify a supplier's plant location, slaughter dates and health certificates - not just the country of origin.

Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety (CFS) announced on 28 September 2026 that it had instructed the trade to suspend imports of poultry meat and poultry products, including eggs, from four specific counties in the United States after the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) notified outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza: Turner County (South Dakota), Becker County and Otter Tail County (Minnesota) and LaMoure County (North Dakota). Hong Kong imported about 24,190 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 20.2 million poultry eggs from the United States in the first half of 2026, so even narrow county-level suspensions touch real volumes.

Five days earlier, on 23 September 2026, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) placed temporary restrictions on poultry and poultry products from a 10-km radius around confirmed HPAI outbreaks in four rural municipalities in Manitoba, Canada - De Salaberry, Cartier, Rockwood and Rhineland.

• Restrictions are sub-national, not national. Neither action closes the United States or Canada. Product from unaffected counties and provinces continues to move, so a supplier based outside the listed areas is unaffected even while the country headline looks alarming.
• Heat-treated product keeps its access. Singapore exempts poultry products treated to inactivate the virus in line with WOAH guidelines, a route that matters for cooked and further-processed lines.
• Cut-off dates decide what still clears. Singapore continues to accept product from the affected municipalities exported before 10-22 September 2026 and slaughtered before 27 August-8 September 2026, depending on the municipality. That makes the slaughter date and the export date on the veterinary health certificate as decisive as the certificate itself.
• Suspensions are reversible. The Philippine Department of Agriculture lifted its temporary ban on poultry and bird products from Indiana under Department Circular 48, signed on 17 September 2026 and effective 10 October 2026, after US veterinary authorities reported to WOAH that the earlier outbreaks had been resolved. Under the US-Philippines regionalisation arrangement, a whole state is restricted only when outbreaks are recorded in at least three counties.
• Expect more notices this autumn. The northern-hemisphere autumn migration season raises the risk of new incursions into commercial flocks, and each WOAH notification tends to produce a fresh round of import instructions within days.

For buyers in the Gulf, Africa and Central Asia the practical consequence is that origin risk has to be checked at plant level before each order. A supplier can be fully compliant one week and blocked the next without any change in its own operations. The defence is documentation discipline: a named processing plant, dates that fall inside the acceptance windows, WOAH-consistent certification and an alternative origin already approved and on file. A verified supply chain is worth more than the cheapest offer when import rules can change inside a single week.

Nau International Food Group supplies frozen halal chicken - boneless skinless breast and leg quarters - and frozen mackerel from China to the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Every consignment ships with a halal certificate, an HACCP certificate (No. 115HACCP2500478), documents for a GACC-registered plant (No. 0900/03003), veterinary and health certificates and a certificate of origin. Product is blast-frozen and held at −18 °C with a 365-day shelf life; packing is 2 kg x 6 for breast and 10 kg x 1 for leg quarters; the minimum order is one 40 ft reefer container (28.008 tonnes); payment is 100% T/T or L/C; shipment is within 30 days of payment receipt. We can arrange customs clearance into Dubai and quote FOB, CIF or DDP Jebel Ali - write to info@naufoodgroup.com.

Source: Centre for Food Safety, Government of the Hong Kong SAR, press release 28 September 2026; Singapore Food Agency restrictions of 23 September 2026; Philippine Department of Agriculture Department Circular 48, signed 17 September 2026, as reported by The Manila Times, 30 September 2026.