The UK has eased restrictions on pork imports from Spain after implementing blanket controls last week due to the detection of African swine fever (ASF).
So-called regionalisation measures have been deployed by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) under which Spanish pork imports will be permitted from outside of the ASF-affected areas in Spain.
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Any shipments into the UK received from the infected zone in the Cerdanyola del Vallès municipality in Barcelona will continue to be held at border control posts.
Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food put out an alert last Friday (28 November) after ASF was detected in a pair of wild boar found dead in Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, two days earlier.
Confirmed by the Central Veterinary Laboratory of Algete in Madrid, the Ministry said they were the first instances of ASF to be detected in the country since November 1994.
The number of cases has since risen to nine, all in the same region, while a “control and surveillance zone with a radius of 20 kilometres around the detected cases” has been imposed, the Ministry said in an update.
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By GlobalDataA Defra spokesperson said: “We take the threat of animal diseases extremely seriously and our commitment to maintaining the country’s biosecurity is unwavering.
“Following an outbreak of African swine fever in Spain, all fresh pork and other impacted products from the region affected are restricted. Exports from disease-free areas of Spain can continue as normal.”
Measures will be reviewed accordingly, the spokesperson added.
Citing data from Spanish non-profit Interporc, the UK’s National Pig Association (NPA) said Spain is the world’s second-biggest pork exporter, shipping 2.7m tonnes last year valued at more than €8.8bn ($10.2bn).
In the first nine months of this year, the UK imported 56,000 tonnes of pigmeat products from Spain, an increase of 11% on the corresponding period, the NPA said.
Its CEO Lizzie Wilson said in a statement on Monday: “The news from Spain is of real concern. Obviously, this could have a huge impact on Spanish pig producers, with a knock-on effect on the wider EU and UK pork sectors if Spain faces significant restrictions on exports over a prolonged period.
“This incident also starkly highlights the huge threat posed by the ASF virus – and its continued ability to pop up anywhere at any time, in this case, as many times before, with humans undoubtedly playing a significant role.”
The UK’s regionalisation approach follows the same stance reportedly taken by the European Commission for EU countries. Just Food has asked the Commission for an update on its current position.
China also initially imposed a blanket ban but has also now adopted a regionalisation approach, according to media reports.
Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said it has asked for assistance from the Commission’s veterinary emergency team to help combat the outbreak, which has been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
Hunting has been prohibited in the concerned area to prevent the movement of wild boars and the potential spread of the virus beyond the restriction zone, the Ministry said.
However, on visits paid to pig farms within a 20-kilometer radius of the infected area, “no compatible symptoms or lesions have been detected” and samples taken from those farms have all tested negative, it added.
