A Cullman County farm remains quarantined as additional testing is done to determine the next step concerning the flock.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong announced a ban Thursday of imports of poultry meat and products from Cullman County after the local flock of chickens tested positive for low-pathogenic H7 avian influenza, according to a report.

“The CFS has contacted the US authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the World Organization for Animal Health on avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation,” the spokesman said.

A CFS spokesman said that Hong Kong imported about 300,000 tons of frozen and chilled poultry meat and 526 million poultry eggs from the U.S. last year.

The quarantine zone covers 10 kilometers around the local commercial farm, said Daniel Autrey, chief of staff at the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.

“The (poultry) companies will test all of the birds in that flock. We will also test backyard flocks in a three-kilometer area. I’m hopeful we won’t find anything,” Autrey said.

Autrey said sampling of birds is routine, especially before they go to processors.

“A lot of safeguards are in place in the poultry industry, which is highly important to the state and to Cullman County,” Autrey said.

Cullman County is Alabama’s biggest broiler producer, with poultry and eggs making up 85.5 percent of the county’s total agricultural and forestry production, according to the Alabama Farmers Federation.

Cullman County’s poultry and egg industry totals nearly $811 million, accounts for nearly 4,000 jobs and produces $14.4 million in indirect business taxes, according to the state organization.

The low-pathogenic illness found in birds at a Cullman County farm is similar to the one found in two other commercial operations in the state. The illness also has been detected at three backyard operations.

Bird flu has been found in three states across the South this month. An expert says this is the worst U.S. outbreak of the disease since 2015. More than 200,000 birds have been destroyed to stop the spread.

The Associated Press and The Times’ Tiffeny Owens contributed to his report.