Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts about the threat to pig health in the UK arising from (a) African swine fever and (b) porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus.

Defra, through the Animal Health Veterinary Laboratories Agency, undertakes routine scanning surveillance for the detection of new or re-emerging animal diseases that may pose a threat to animal health or public health. When an increase in threat is recognised, we publish risk assessments which are shared directly with our European colleagues and the European Commission. These are publicly available at http://www.defra.gov.uk/animal-diseases/monitoring/poa/.

On African Swine Fever, we produced a risk assessment following the detection of wild boar cases in the European Union on the border with Belarus in January 2014. The situation and the risks posed to Member States are discussed at meetings of the Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health. These discussions have led to additional safeguard measures and the increased level of surveillance in Poland and Lithuania .

Defra was made aware of porcine epidemic diarrhoea (PED) and the emergence of a new virulent strain in the Americas and Asia in May 2013 when we first published an assessment of the risk of the disease entering the UK. We shared this assessment with the European Commission and our European colleagues. This was to raise awareness in a public forum, despite PED not being a notifiable disease. Since then, we have worked closely with other Member States with significant pig industries and the Commission to share our concerns. This has resulted in improved safeguard measures and a commissioned piece of work by European Food Safety Authority to look at risk pathways.