Alerts

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (department) has changed import conditions to remove Sweden as an approved country for a number of porcine commodities.

BICON change notices detailing specific changes will be issued for the affected commodities.

Who does this alert affect:
Importers of Cooked and uncooked pig meat, Porcine fluids and tissues, Culture media containing porcine fluids and tissues, Soil, and Test kits, brokers, biosecurity staff and Pathway Operations Cargo - Assessment and Inspection.

Background:
The department received official notification of an outbreak of ASF in Sweden.

The Director of Biosecurity is required to act on changes to disease status in order to manage Australia’s biosecurity risk to an appropriate level of protection (ALOP).

ASF is a contagious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs. Since 2007, the disease has spread throughout the world. ASF has never occurred in Australia, and it is a significant biosecurity threat to our country.

An outbreak would be devastating for our pig industry and also damage our trade and the economy. A small-scale outbreak of ASF in domestic pigs followed by eradication of the disease was estimated to cost $117 million to $263 million. Endemic ASF was estimated to cost between about $0.4 billion and $2.5 billion.

Further information:
Please contact the department on 1800 900 090 (prompt 1, then prompt 1) or email imports@aff.gov.au.