Responding to a letter from the Chairman of the National pig Association (NPA) Richard Lister, Minister of agriculture George Eustis said that the level of risk in the UK at the moment is set as "average," which means waiting for the occurrence of outbreaks during the year.

The Minister added that the Ministry of agriculture and competent authorities are actively cooperating with the border services to improve information exchange, detection and seizure of illegal imports, as well as increase awareness of tourists about the risks of the importation of potentially infected products of animal origin.

The government estimates the damage from a possible outbreak of ASF in the 90 million pounds, but the NPA is confident that this conservative estimate as the cost only of the export market reaches 470 million pounds per year.

Lister is convinced that it is necessary to radically increase funding for anti-epizootic measures: "the Campaign for awareness is good, but should be achieved and from the Ministry of agriculture, and border services more serious attitude to the problem. The challenge for farmers is to prevent the virus spread on the farm and the task of the authorities – not to allow him into the country".