March 28, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Smuggled meat blamed for British foot-and-mouth outbreak

LONDON, March 28, Graphic News: Suspicion has centred on illegally imported meat from countries where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic -- ending up in pig swill -- as the cause of BritainÕs foot-and-mouth epidemic. 

Officials in the North East are investigating a meat smuggling operation from the Middle and Far East after a container of illegal meat -- clearly labelled for a Chinese restaurant --was found concealed inside a load of household goods.

The link with the Far East fits in with a strain of the virus identified in the infected livestock. Professor Alex Donaldson, of the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright, Surrey, said that the PanAsia, or Type O strain was common in China, Cambodia, Vietnam and South-East Asia. Meat from any region with foot-and-mouth disease is banned from being imported into Britain.

BritainÕs association of Port Health Authorities (PHAs) has lobbied the government for some time to toughen checks on trucks entering Britain. PHAs, which are responsible for infectious disease control at ports and airports, said that more than 200 consignments of illegally imported meat are intercepted every month on their way into Britain, but that new laws are now needed because no specific government agency is in charge of checking for smuggled meat.

ÒWe really donÕt know the full extent of the problem,Ó said Mike Young, spokesman for the association of PHAs. ÒWe do know that illegal meat products are found in sea and airports concealed in consignments of fruit and vegetables and in passenger baggage, but we suspect that what we find is only the tip of the iceberg.Ó

At LondonÕs Heathrow airport the practice is so common that baggage handlers regularly alert customs when they notice blood dripping out of suitcases. Hand luggage has been found to contain a wide range of exotic meats: cow-hide, bush meat and dried lamb, bush rats, antelope, pomos (cowsÕ nostrils), smokies (blowtorched pieces of goat with the skin on), monkey meat, elephant, oriental sausages, dried caterpillars and smoked grubs -- all smuggled in for speciality ethnic markets.

Meat intercepted by the container load includes consignments of pork, lamb, beef and goat from Asia and Africa.

Doug Bloomfield, assistant director of environmental services responsible for Felixstowe, the biggest container port in Britain, said he seized on average one illegal consignment a week. ÒIt can be anything from a few sausages from Asia to 300 to 400 cartons hidden in a container load of something else. Sometimes we have to empty the whole consignment to find things, at other times there are large quantities.Ó

Customs officials in Hong Kong have said they cannot rule out the possibility that the European foot-and-mouth epidemic was sparked by meat illegally smuggled from China.

Special Administrative Region officials seized nearly 250 tonnes of smuggled pork with a value of more than US$580,000 (GB£406,000) last year. In January and February this year over 63 tonnes of frozen, fresh and preserved pork worth more than $164,000 (£114,000) was seized.

The full value of illegal meat imported into Britain is estimated at up to $19 million (£13 million) per year. More than 730 tonnes of illegally imported meat was intercepted at British ports and airports last year.
/ENDS
Sources: Reuters, South China Morning Post, Institute for Animal Health