Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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164. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the contingency plans deployed in terms of monitoring and biosecurity measures in view of the confirmation of the spread of African swine fever to western Europe; and the supports that will be available to pig farmers. [39352/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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African Swine Fever (ASF) is a very serious and usually fatal viral disease of pigs. The disease has been spreading in Europe since it first entered the Eastern part of the European Union in 2014. The disease has spread to a number of EU Member States including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and more recently Belgium, where the disease was confirmed in wild boar. The disease does not affect other animal species or humans and there are no food safety implications.

Specific EU legislation (Directive 2002/60/EC) is in place that sets out the control measures to be implemented in the event of an ASF outbreak in an EU member state in order to control the disease and prevent any spread. These control measures include, for example, culling of animals in affected herds, animal and animal product movement restrictions, investigation into the source of disease and surveillance of susceptible populations. These control measures are being implemented in the affected countries.

ASF has never been detected in Ireland. A significant risk factor for the introduction of ASF into Ireland would be the illegal or inadvertent importation of meat or meat products from infected pigs particularly as the virus is very stable and can survive for months in uncooked or cured pork and pork products e.g. salami, sausages. The feeding of such products to pigs could then result in a disease outbreak here. A further risk would be the inadvertent spread of the virus by humans on clothing, footwear etc, who may have been exposed to the virus in affected countries. Wild boar which are also affected by the disease have played a major role in the spread of ASF in Eastern Europe. Ireland does not have a sustained population of wild boar.

DAFM has a contingency plan in place setting out the procedures and protocols that would be followed in the event of a suspected or confirmed case of ASF here. DAFM also has an ongoing early warning system and awareness campaign in place for all exotic diseases including ASF. Measures to protect the Irish pig industry from the threat of ASF have been stepped up in recent months and include for example:

- Close monitoring of the situation in EU member states and liaising with our EU neighbours on a regular basis.

- Circulation of regular information on ASF to targeted stakeholders to keep them informed of the current situation in Europe and the risk to Ireland. These documents are also made available at the disease control section of the DAFM website.

- Production of disease factsheets on ASF for both vets and farmers and their circulation to stakeholders for example as part of the annual pig census. They are also available on the DAFM website.

- Production of a multilingual poster warning of the dangers of visitors or staff returning from affected regions of the EU and bringing back meat or meat products onto Irish pig farms and its circulation to over 300 commercial pig farms in recent months.

- Biosecurity advice detailing measures that can be taken to prevent entry of the disease is available on the disease control section of the DAFM website for both the intensive commercial sectors and the less intensive pig farmers such as organic and outdoor production systems.

- Posters advising members of the public of the risks of ASF are in place at airports and ports.

-Specific advice regarding the risk of ASF was recently circulated to Irish livestock transporters who may travel to or transit through areas of the EU affected by ASF this summer.

- DAFM regularly tweets exotic disease information including biosecurity advice for farmers and specific information on ASF.

- Staff from DAFM’s veterinary service manned an information stand at the Ploughing Championships 2018 where ASF was a featured disease.

The Department continues to review all aspects of its contingency arrangements in relation to ASF in light of any emerging veterinary or scientific information and introduces such measures as are considered appropriate.