UK GOVERNMENT officials need to wake up to the severity of the threat posed by African swine fever and enforce stricter biosecurity measures.

This message came from pig farmer and chair of NFU Scotland’s pigs committee, Jamie Wyllie, who has criticised the powers that be for failing to prepare the country for a disease which could ‘devastate its pig population’ and threaten food security.

He told The SF that other pig producing countries were taking much more stringent measures to protect their herds from ASF, which leads to 100% pig mortality.

“During a recent trip to Canada, every poster on the way down to collect my luggage warned of ASF and we had to sign declaration cards on entry with questions specifically on the disease,” he said. “No questions were asked on arrival in the UK about pig contact. All we have in Edinburgh airport is one A4 poster with more words than the dictionary that no one is going to take any notice of.

“NFU Scotland’s Pigs Working Group, along with one of the largest pig co-ops in Scotland, offered to fund signage to get the ball rolling, but valuable advertising space got in the way of protecting our country’s home production.”

Despite ASF not presenting a direct threat to human health, Mr Wyllie highlighted that the recent global pandemic has flagged up fragility in the food supply chain which should send ‘alarm bells ringing’ regarding any disease which could threaten future food security.

“We are only 50% self-sufficient in pork production, relying heavily on imports from mainland Europe. This disease is marching across the continent and if it spreads in the likes of Denmark and Germany, they will have to prioritise home production meaning we could quickly lose half of the UK’s pork supply.”

He pointed out that this is not dissimilar to the recent scarcity of PPE equipment, where the countries which produced it held on to it for themselves. Staying on the topic of Covid-19, he pointed out that work towards a vaccine isn’t likely until next year, which would suggest a vaccine for ASF is even further down the line.

“China is the biggest producer in the world of pig meat and it lost half its production in about a year, and that is with its geography and size as a factor in helping to prevent the spread of the disease further internally,” he continued.

“The UK is 39 times smaller than China and in certain parts of the country quite densely populated with pigs, therefore I don’t think it is unrealistic that a large majority of farms in the UK would probably get infected, and fairly quickly, devastate home pig production.”

Mr Wyllie warned that a future outbreak in the UK isn’t likely to come from mass importation of meat: “ASF will probably come into the country from a ham sandwich being thrown out of the window and consumed by pigs. In Scotland, there are dedicated people in government working on ASF but they aren’t being given the resources from the UK Government to deliver a robust enough biosecurity strategy.”

Managing director of the Scottish Pig Producers, Andy McGowan, stressed that the pig sector needs to take responsibility for controls as well as the UK Government: “Almost all of the cases of ASF around the world have been transmitted by wild boar. We are at a high risk here because of outdoor pig production which will make it harder to keep wild boar out of contact from our domestic herd.”

He pointed out that there are around one to two thousand wild boar and feral pigs in Scotland, predominantly in Galloway and Morayshire, and suggested that Scotland should be following the lead of places such as the Czech Republic to start eradication of the population sooner rather than later.

“ASF was recently reported in Germany and only this morning (30 September) there was a new case reported 80km north of the original cluster - which shows how quickly and far this disease can spread. If the disease hits the UK it will be a matter of months not years before the whole of the country is affected.”