SHIC Outlines Risks Posed by Illegal Meat Imports

The Swine Health Information Center's September eNewsletter highlights the risks of transmitting African Swine Fever through illegal meat imports to uninfected countries.The Swine Health Information Center's global swine disease monitoring report, released as part of its September eNewsletter chronicles the ongoing global expansion of African Swine Fever and a government report out of the United Kingdom that reveals a high risk of ASF reaching the nation due to illegal pork imports.

Swine Health Information Center Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says illegal meat imports pose a significant threat.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

With the high volume of people travelling internationally, a lot of folks that do travel aren't familiar with foods where they go and would like to carry their own native foods with them, often times not understanding that these products can cause challenges in other countries.So it is very important to be able to identify and prevent the entry of these products coming into countries that are negative and the United Kingdom has noticed this and have concerns about this as a route of transmission or entry into their country.

North American countries also have the same concerns with these illegal imports and so the U.S. Customs and Border Protection really engages in different areas for inspection of products coming into the U.S.Probably one of the most well know is the use of the Beagle Brigade.This is a program where specially trained dogs can go out and assess individual passenger luggage but also larger shipments for the potential importation of illegal products.

We also look at focusing at our borders and so being able to assess at different areas that might have higher risk, such as boats and people coming in from the Dominican Republic and also focussing on larger ports of entry such as at large airports or international travel sites and really have increased inspection in those areas.

Dr. Becton notes Customs and Border Protection and the pork industry have developed materials to educate people about not bringing meat and meat products from other countries into the United States.SHIC's domestic and global swine disease monitoring reports can be accessed at swinehealth.org.