British government vets slaughtered 1,000 pigs yesterday at a farm in Norfolk in an attempt to control an outbreak of an infectious disease, classical swine fever, in East Anglia. The outbreak has already prompted the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain to impose an embargo on the import of live British pigs, and France is considering a similar ban.
Over the past six days nearly 10,000 pigs have been slaughtered at pig farms in East Anglia and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF) believes the infection may have started in a pig-breeding unit near Attleborough, Norfolk.
The chief veterinary officer, Mr Jim Scudamore, said it could be several weeks before the outbreak, the first in Britain for 14 years, could be eradicated: "At the moment, the cases are all linked to one farm and, if any other cases turn out to be linked to that farm too, then hopefully we will be able to deal with it quite quickly.
"The difficulty will be if it has spread any further, and we are visiting a lot of farms at the moment to see if there has been any spread. We are very concerned. It could have a major impact on the pig-farming industry."
The first case was confirmed last Tuesday at a pig nursery unit near Saxmundham, Suffolk and was also detected at a pig holding near Colchester, Essex. The disease also came to light at two more pig farms in East Anglia at the weekend and MAFF is contacting the owners of hundreds of pig farms with links to farms where the disease has been found in an attempt to halt the spread of the disease.
Classical swine fever can be transmitted in a number of ways. It can be transferred directly from pig to pig, by transporting pigs in contaminated vehicles, and by feeding pigs waste food containing infected meat.
The effect of the disease on the British pig market could be devastating, Mr Chris Luckhurst of the Meat and Livestock Commission said. "Most pig farmers have been making quite large losses for the last two years and they really are not in a financial situation to be able to bear any additional losses at the moment," he said.
Sean Mac Connell, Agriculture Correspondent, adds:
The Department of Agriculture and Food has banned the importation of live pigs from Britain into the Republic. A statement confirming the ban on the import of live pigs here from the UK said that the disease cannot spread to humans and has no implications relating to food consumption.
It said Ireland's pig herd was free from classical swine fever and there had not been a case here since 1958. There is a legal obligation on farmers to report any suspected case.