Sniffer dogs used to target tourists bringing banned meat into Britain

SNIFFER dogs are being used at sea and airports to catch tourists and holidaymakers trying to smuggle banned meat into Britain.

It comes as UK pig farmers are calling for a ban on the import of all raw and processed products following the outbreak of a deadly disease.

If the virus – called African Swine Fever – struck this country it would jeopardise our £500million-a-year export of pork products.

The alert follows the discovery of fragments of ASF in a sausage of Asian origin seized by port authorities in Northern Ireland.

The disease, which has already spread from Asia to parts of Europe, is harmless to humans but an infected pig can die within days and there is no known cure or vaccine.

As a result sniffer dogs have been called in, Border Force officers are conducting random searches and video messages are being screened on selected international flights.

Anyone caught importing meat from ASF-infected countries faces a possible three-month jail sentence or an unlimited fine.

The Department of Agriculture in Belfast confirmed that 661lb (300kg) of illicit meat was confiscated last month and that official testing had found the ASF virus in a sausage of Asian origin. A spokesman for the department was unable to say where in Asia the sausage had originated but the discovery has alarmed government vets and the pig industry.

ASF can be transmitted in pork products and survives for months in smoked, dried, cured or frozen meat. Dr Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association (NPA), said: ‘We have always maintained that the biggest threat to UK pigs is from infected meat products illegally brought here from infected areas.’

NPA chairman Richard Lister said: ‘I’m grateful the Government is doing something but it is late in the day. I have been abroad three times in the past six months, including to Canada and the United States, where there is clear information about not bringing in meat and the messages are in four or five languages. We’ve got some catching up to do.’

Professor Jill Thomson, of the Pig Veterinary Society, added: ‘We must persuade people returning from holiday not to bring in processed pork products. Just one infected ham sandwich could cause havoc.’

Travellers are already banned from bringing in meat and dairy products from countries outside Europe, but there has been little enforcement.

The tougher controls will apply to passengers from all countries where the disease is present, as well as areas of Europe with infected pigs.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman confirmed that posters would appear at ports within weeks and any illegal meat would be seized and destroyed.

Denmark is so worried about the threat to its £1.3billion a year pig industry that it has a built a 43-mile fence along its border with Germany to halt disease spread by wild boar.

ASF has been confirmed in Belarus, Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sardinia and Ukraine.