Hong Kong has banned the import of poultry and poultry products from the German state of Thuringen with immediate effect, the city's Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said on Tuesday.

The announcement was in response to a notification from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) about an outbreak of low-pathogenic H5 avian influenza on a poultry farm in Thuringen.

A CFS spokesman said Hong Kong has contacted the German authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on the avian influenza outbreaks in the country.

There were about 10,000 tonnes of frozen and chilled poultry meat, as well as about 2.8 million poultry eggs imported into Hong Kong from Germany last year.