The Hong Kong government has banned the sale of ostriches and all live birds and poultry meat from South Africa due to an avian flu scare (H5N2 bird flu virus).

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Though this will not have a major effect, as ostrich is hardly a mainstream meat in Hong Kong, it shows how cautious the Hong Kong authorities are over avian flu, after the H5N1 strain of the virus ravaged chicken farms across Asia earlier this year and crossed over to humans claiming 24 people’s lives in Thailand and Vietnam.

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