The UK government is being urged to tighten its border controls after Spain confirmed its first case of African swine fever (ASF) in more than three decades, prompting serious concern across the British pig sector.
The disease was identified in two dead wild boar around 1km apart near the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with further suspected cases now under investigation in the region.
In response, Defra has ordered all fresh pork and other affected products from Spain to be held at Border Control Posts while officials assess the evolving situation, saying it will “continue to monitor the situation and keep all measures under review”.
The UK remains free of ASF, but government risk assessments continue to highlight the ongoing threat posed by contaminated or illegally imported meat — particularly given the disease’s spread across multiple EU states in recent years.
Spain is a major global pork exporter, shipping around 2.7m tonnes of pigmeat in 2024 with a value of more than €8.8bn, according to Interporc. The UK imported 56,000 tonnes of Spanish pigmeat in the first nine months of 2025, up 11% on the previous year.
National Pig Association (NPA) chief executive Lizzie Wilson described the development as “of real concern”, warning that the outbreak could trigger major market disruption if Spanish exports face prolonged restrictions.
She stressed the wider implications for both EU and UK producers, noting ASF’s “continued ability to pop up anywhere at any time”, often with human activity playing a role.
Wilson also pointed to earlier failings in disease control enforcement, recalling that during this year’s foot-and-mouth outbreak in Germany “banned commercial products reportedly continued to enter the UK after the ban was imposed”.
She urged the government to avoid “any repeat this time” and ensure that no Spanish product subject to restrictions slips through border checks.
The NPA continues to call for increased funding for port health authorities and Border Force to deal with illegal meat entering the UK — especially through Dover, which has become a target for criminal gangs shipping meat from ASF-affected areas.
Wilson said MPs had repeatedly highlighted the disparity between “the relatively small resource required” for robust enforcement and “the huge cost of a notifiable disease outbreak like ASF or FMD”.
The association is also urging the whole supply chain — producers, processors, hauliers and allied industries — to maintain strict biosecurity, warning that “a UK outbreak of ASF is possible, but not inevitable if everybody plays their part”.
Wilson raised a further concern over regionalisation agreements, which allow continued exports from disease-free areas when a country reports an outbreak. Spain has already secured such arrangements with key markets including China and operates under EU-wide regionalisation rules.
“We have heard nothing official from the UK government about any attempt to forge vital regionalisation agreements,” she said. “It is clear that there are huge benefits from having these in place before notifiable diseases strike.”
Lessons from past outbreaks across Europe underline the risks: persistent reservoirs of infection in wild boar, costly culling measures, long-term movement restrictions, and virus spread linked to contaminated vehicles, equipment and food waste.
Several EU countries, including Belgium and the Czech Republic, have eradicated ASF through intensive surveillance and control, while others have struggled with prolonged, costly outbreaks.
