The British government has raised the risk of African swine fever entering the United Kingdom via contaminated meat imports from low to medium.
In the most recent reassessment of the disease spreading westward across Europe, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) says it has raised the risk on a temporary basis and will revisit it again in two weeks.
Since its last report on Aug. 23, DEFRA has recognized that many more cases of ASF have been confirmed in large commercial pig farms in Romania and Poland. In addition, Bulgaria has reported the first outbreak in backyard pigs in the Varna region.
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According to the EU trade notification system, there have been six consignments of frozen pig meat from Romania consigned to the U.K. in the last month and DEFRA is following up on the origin of the animals.
The department added: “The risk of exposure to the pig population in the U.K. is still dependent on the level of biosecurity on pig premises and is still considered to be low, although the situation is being kept under review.
During July and August there have been a total of 744 cases of ASF reported in Eastern Europe with 591 of those confirmed in Romania.
