Seizures of banned foods and exotic bush meats, plants and medicines being illegally imported by passengers arriving at Dublin airport have jumped by a fifth in the first four months of the year.
Almost 1,000kg (2,200lb) of illegal foods were confiscated by Department of Agriculture inspectors between January and April, an 18 per cent increase on the same period last year.
The number of seizures was also up 23 per cent with almost 16,000 passengers questioned and over 3,000 bags searched during the four months.
Plant-health inspectors have discovered quantities of food crops in suitcases and some "bush herbs or medicine plants".
Plants have also been seized because pests have been found living on them. There has also been a number of endangered species of plant seized.
As part of measures to keep out diseases or pests that could threaten the country's crops, livestock and public health, inspectors searched almost 8,500 bags and interviewed over 59,000 passengers arriving last year.
They made almost 720 seizures of a total of 2,700kg (5,940lb) of illegal foods. Products from over 100 countries has been seized. More exotic foods have included camel, monkey, snake and antelope meat and bats, frogs' legs and snails.
"We wouldn't seize a huge amount of bush meats," a spokesman said. "An approximate breakdown of the seizures last year would have been pig meat 64 per cent, cheeses 16 per cent, beef 8 per cent and poultry 3 per cent."
While some of the stranger foods are considered delicacies in other countries, they are regarded as potentially dangerous sources of infection.
There have been some higher-volume seizures which inspectors believe were not just personal imports but were brought in for commercial purposes, most likely for ethnic shops.
"The department says the highest risk is from immigrants coming to work on farms and visitors to the countryside who don't dispose of waste properly.
"There is a huge risk if foot-and-mouth or another disease was introduced to the food industry," the spokesman said.
Inspections were tightened up at ports and airports during the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001.
The disease spread here from Britain where it was probably caused by illegally imported products being fed to pigs.
A department study found foot-and-mouth cost the Irish economy €210 million or 0.2 per cent of GDP. The potential loss could have been €5.6 billion.