Biosecurity blind spot leaves farmers exposed to disease risk

British farmers are being exposed to animal disease risk because illegally imported meat seized at UK ports is not routinely tested for notifiable diseases, Farmers Weekly can reveal.

The disclosure comes despite government assessments warning that illegally imported pork, particularly via vans and cars from African swine fever-affected parts of Europe, represents a high-risk pathway for disease entering Great Britain.

Separate government risk assessments have also identified illegal imports of meat and dairy as a potential pathway for foot-and-mouth disease.

See also: Scale of illegal meat imports shocks Efra committee

A response to a Farmers Weekly Freedom of Information request from the Animal and Plant Health Agency confirmed that meat intercepted after being imported illegally is generally destroyed without testing, meaning there is no routine screening for notifiable animal diseases.

The lack of testing creates a significant biosecurity blind spot, as seized illegal meat is one of the few opportunities to detect disease before it reaches livestock.

Even where meat has no declared origin, laboratory testing can still provide intelligence, including identifying likely regions of origin and tracking whether risk at the border is increasing.

Other countries such as Australia and New Zealand use risk-based testing of seized products as part of their border biosecurity surveillance.

‘Huge risk’

Food supply chain expert Chris Elliott, professor of food safety at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “The level of illegally imported meat coming into the UK is a huge risk to our national food safety and biosecurity.

“What makes this even more worrying is that Defra, despite repeated warnings, has failed to provide port authorities with the resources they need to carry out the levels of inspections required to combat this illicit cross-border trade.

“This is a ticking time bomb with a very short fuse.

“And the longer the situation continues, the closer we get to a crisis that could have been entirely preventable.”

The Port of Dover confirmed to Farmers Weekly that Defra has not requested or provided additional funding for testing illegally imported meat identified at the border.

Tony Goodger, head of marketing and communications at the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers, said a testing regime would give government a better understanding of the threat illegal meat imports pose to farmers and the wider economy.

But the National Pig Association warned any testing regime must be backed by additional funding, adding the Dover Port Health Authority may not have guaranteed resource beyond the end of this financial year.

A Defra spokesman insisted: “We work to safeguard the UK from a huge range of diseases of animals, plants, and bees, securing farmers’ livelihoods, food security, economic security, animal health and welfare and public health.

“We help to prevent animal diseases entering or spreading in the UK through a combination of surveillance, diagnostics, research, and rapid response when suspicions of a notifiable disease are reported.”