Brent Kleiss, chief executive of New Zealand Pork, thinks the confirmed cases of African swine fever (ASF) in Spain are a cause for concern in New Zealand.
Spain has confirmed that two wild boars found dead near Barcelona tested positive for the virus. In response, the United Kingdom, along with other countries, swiftly imposed a temporary ban on imports from Spain.
In New Zealand, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said the country would refuse any pork imports from that part of Spain.
For Kleiss, steps such as a temporary ban need to be implemented.
“I guess the big concern for me is that now, along with Spain, 43% of pork coming to New Zealand does come from countries with African swine fever, and these temporary bans don’t always stay, even when the ASF does,” he said.
Spain was the second-largest source of New Zealand’s pork imports this year, supplying 7,211 metric tonnes up to September.
Germany led with 9,256 metric tonnes, while the US ranked third with 6,168 tonnes.
Kleiss said New Zealand should be implementing additional measures to prevent the virus from spreading locally.
“I’d like to see a good review of our settings around allowing imports from countries of things like African swine fever, I think that would be a good step.”
“Then things we can do here, keeping an eye out for the signs and symptoms in our animals, changing some of the rules around waste food feeding, and what you can and can’t feed to pigs in New Zealand.”
“That would be a likely course of entry for a disease like this and for others, like foot and mouth disease.”
“Certainly, some greater traceability of where our backyard pigs are in New Zealand, because we don’t really have too much of a picture of that.”
Meanwhile, Lisa Winthrop, director of import and export standards at Biosecurity New Zealand, said the country’s measures against swine fever have been effective in the past.
According to Winthrop, these measures include the country banning all imports of live pigs and prohibiting personal consignments of pork products from any country.
“Unprocessed [fresh or frozen pork] can only be imported from ASF-free countries, zones or regions.
“Some commercial pork products can be imported into New Zealand, but only if they meet strict import conditions to ensure they are free from ASF, including undergoing a treatment that destroys the virus.”