Government 'will be complicit' in any major UK disease outbreak

MPs who sit on EFRA were told that African swine fever (ASF) is currently ‘very prevalent’ across Europe

The government 'will be complicit' in a damaging future disease outbreak if it does not address the 'gaping holes' in border controls, MPs have been warned.

The National Pig Association (NPA) made the stark comments to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee on Tuesday (4 March).

As part of an inquiry into preparedness for animal disease outbreaks, the NPA raised worry over a potential future outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) or foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

NPA's chief executive Lizzie Wilson also raised concerns over news that funding for the Dover Port Health Authority to allow it to continue work in seizing illegal meat imports will cease in April.

She revealed to MPs that more than 200 tonnes of illegal meat had been seized at Dover since September 2022, with volumes increasing markedly over the first two months of the year.

Flaws in the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) for import checks were also put in the spotlight, as well as revelations that products from Germany continued to enter the UK for a around a week following a case of FMD near Berlin in January.

Ms Wilson said: "We know that 90% of illegally imported products of animal origin are coming in via Dover Port and we know it’s coming in via the tourist routes via illegally imported pigmeat in in vans and coaches.

“But we also know that it’s coming in via the commercial line lanes because the BTOM just simply isn’t fit for purpose.

“We believe that more resource should be channelled to Dover. We still haven’t got any sort of funding agreement in place and we have literally got weeks before they will have to stop all of those inspections checks.”

Ms Wilson pointed out that, while Border Force carried out important work at the port, it is DPHA that proactively carries out the meat seizures and is primarily responsible for the work.

“We also know that down the west coast of the country, there are no controls and no cheques or monitoring whatsoever, so it’s essentially an open door for product to flow into the country."

Ms Wilson added that the current personal import policy was confusing for tourists and very difficult to implement and enforce.

“We have safeguarding measures in place for FMD at the moment, but they are entirely pointless if there isn’t the resource dedicated to implement and enforce them," she told MPs.

"Otherwise, it’s simply lip-service and we know that, from 10 January, when FMD was announced in Germany, the digital auto clearance system was still operational for products coming from Germany until at least 18 January and it’s still active now.

“There’s no mechanism to identify those lorries that have self-declared themselves as low risk and, therefore, have auto-cleared, so they don’t have to be inspected.”

She said the government’s approach to border controls ‘just isn’t good enough’ and called for more engagement from Defra with the different port health authorities.

“If we do end up with another notifiable disease, ASF is predicted to cost us between £10 and 100m and FMD potentially £14.7 billion in today’s money," Ms Wilson warned EFRA.

"If that happens, government will be complicit, if they’ve not actually stopped the meat that they are entirely aware of coming to the into this country.”

She also pointed out that ASF is currently ‘very prevalent’ across Europe and had been making its way steadily westward for a number of years.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) currently designates the risk of the human-mediated spread of ASF as ‘high'.

For the wider livestock sector, ASF was ‘the lesser of two evils’, Ms Wilson said, adding that the greater concern was FMD which would be ‘catastrophic for the entire cloven hooves livestock sector’.

She warned that the pig sector could be ‘irrevocably damaged’ from an ASF or FMD outbreak, which would result in the loss of export markets, worth about £600 million per annum.

It would also shut down parts of the country, alongside potential widespread culling of infected pig herds, Ms Wilson starkly highlighted to MPs.

“When your business has been through so much, mentally, financially and physically, I’m not sure many would be willing or able to re-stock afterwards,” she said.