The Quantity and Quality of Illegally Imported Products of Animal Origin in Personal Consignments into the European Union Seized at Two German Airports between 2010 And 2014

A systematic review of the intercontinental movement of unregulated African meat imports into and through European border checkpoints

There is an urgent need for biosurveillance of unregulated African meat imports at border points of entry in destination markets. This is underscored by recent pandemics linked to exotic wildlife products. Our objective was to catalog the quantity of meat that is informally transported from Africa into and through Europe often without any veterinary or sanitary checks. We searched and included peer-reviewed studies that contained data on the intercontinental movement of unregulated meat from the African continent. This was followed by an investigation of the reported contamination of such meat. We included fifteen airport studies with limited data on this topic. The references included in this review describe the quantity of meat found at border inspection posts and the presence of pathogens. Disease-causing pathogens were found to be present, and the results are organized into bacteria, virus, and parasite categories. The species of animal meat found in this review were linked to CITES-protected species some of which are known reservoir hosts for infectious diseases. This represents a potential and unquantified human health risk to populations along the supply chain, and a loss to biodiversity in supply countries. Meat samples described in this review were primarily found opportunistically by Customs officials, indicating that any estimate of the total quantities passing undetected through border checkpoints must remain tentative, and cannot rule out the possibility that it is indeed considerably higher. We propose a template for future studies regarding African meat imports at border points of entry. The result of this review illustrates a gap in knowledge and lacunae regarding the amount of unregulated African meat imports worldwide, the pathogens it may contain, and the resulting biodiversity loss that occurs from the intercontinental movement of this meat.

Rapid risk assessment tool (RRAT) to prioritize emerging and re-emerging livestock diseases for risk management

Increasing globalization and international trade contribute to rapid expansion of animal and human diseases. Hence, preparedness is warranted to prevent outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging diseases or detect outbreaks in an early stage. We developed a rapid risk assessment tool (RRAT) to inform risk managers on the incursion risk of multiple livestock diseases, about the main sources for incursion and the change of risk over time. RRAT was built as a relational database to link data on disease outbreaks worldwide, on introduction routes and on disease-specific parameters. The tool was parameterized to assess the incursion risk of 10 livestock diseases for the Netherlands by three introduction routes: legal trade in live animals, legal trade of animal products, and animal products illegally carried by air travelers. RRAT calculates a semi-quantitative risk score for the incursion risk of each disease, the results of which allow for prioritization. Results based on the years 2016-2018 indicated that the legal introduction routes had the highest incursion risk for bovine tuberculosis, whereas the illegal route posed the highest risk for classical swine fever. The overall incursion risk via the illegal route was lower than via the legal routes. The incursion risk of African swine fever increased over the period considered, whereas the risk of equine infectious anemia decreased. The variation in the incursion risk over time illustrates the need to update the risk estimates on a regular basis. RRAT has been designed such that the risk assessment can be automatically updated when new data becomes available. For diseases with high-risk scores, model results can be analyzed in more detail to see which countries and trade flows contribute most to the risk, the results of which can be used to design risk-based surveillance. RRAT thus provides a multitude of information to evaluate the incursion risk of livestock diseases at different levels of detail. To give risk managers access to all results of RRAT, an online visualization tool was built.

Risks of introduction and economic consequences associated with African swine fever, classical swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease: A review of the literature

African swine fever (ASF), classical swine fever (CSF) and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) are considered to be three of the most detrimental animal diseases and are currently foreign to the U.S. Emerging and re-emerging pathogens can have tremendous impacts in terms of livestock morbidity and mortality events, production losses, forced trade restrictions, and costs associated with treatment and control. The United States is the world's top producer of beef for domestic and export use and the world's third-largest producer and consumer of pork and pork products; it has also recently been either the world's largest or second largest exporter of pork and pork products. Understanding the routes of introduction into the United States and the potential economic impact of each pathogen are crucial to (a) allocate resources to prevent routes of introduction that are believed to be more probable, (b) evaluate cost and efficacy of control methods and (c) ensure that protections are enacted to minimize impact to the most vulnerable industries. With two scoping literature reviews, pulled from global data, this study assesses the risk posed by each disease in the event of a viral introduction into the United States and illustrates what is known about the economic costs and losses associated with an outbreak.

Assessing the aggregated probability of entry of a novel prion disease agent into the United Kingdom

In 2018 prion disease was detected in camels at an abattoir in Algeria for the first time. The emergence of prion disease in this species made it prudent to assess the probability of entry of the pathogen into the United Kingdom (UK) from this region. Potentially contaminated products were identified as evidenced by other prion diseases. The aggregated probability of entry of the pathogen was estimated as very high and high for legal milk and cheese imports respectively and very high, high and high for illegal meat, milk and cheese products respectively. This aggregated probability represents a qualitative assessment of the probability of one or more entry events per year into the UK; it gives no indication of the number of entry events per year. The uncertainty associated with these estimates was high due to the unknown variation in prevalence of infection in camels and an uncertain number and type of illegal products entering the UK. Potential public health implications of this pathogen are unknown although there is currently no evidence of zoonotic transmission of prion diseases other than bovine spongiform encephalopathy to humans.

Addressing the illegal wildlife trade in the European Union as a public health issue to draw decision makers attention

The European Union is one of the most important markets for the trafficking of endangered species and a major transit point for illegal wildlife trade. The latter is not only one of the most important anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity loss, it also represents a growing risk for public health. Indeed, wildlife trade exposes humans to a plethora of severe emerging infectious diseases, some of which have contributed to the most dramatic global pandemics humankind has endured. Illegal wildlife trade is often considered as a problem of developing countries but it is first and foremost an international global business with a trade flow from developing to developed countries. The devastating effects of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 outbreak should thus be an unassailable argument for European decision makers to change paradigm. Rather than deploying efforts and money to combat novel pathogens, mitigating the risk of spreading emerging infectious diseases should be addressed and be part of any sustainable socioeconomic development plan. Stricter control procedures at borders and policies should be enforced. Additionally, strengthening research in wildlife forensic science and developing a network of forensic laboratories should be the cornerstone of the European Union plan to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. Such proactive approach, that should further figure in the EU-Wildlife Action Plan, could produce a win-win situation: the curb of illegal wildlife trade would subsequently diminish the likelihood of importing new zoonotic diseases in the European Union.

Risk of African swine fever virus introduction into the United States through smuggling of pork in air passenger luggage

African swine fever causes substantial economic losses in the swine industry in affected countries. Traditionally confined to Africa with only occasional incursions into other regions, ASF began spreading into Caucasian countries and Eastern Europe in 2007, followed by Western Europe and Asia in 2018. Such a dramatic change in the global epidemiology of ASF has resulted in concerns that the disease may continue to spread into disease-free regions such as the US. In this study, we estimated the risk of introduction of ASF virus into the US through smuggling of pork in air passenger luggage. Results suggest that the mean risk of ASFV introduction into the US via this route has increased by 183.33% from the risk estimated before the disease had spread into Western Europe or Asia. Most of the risk (67.68%) was associated with flights originating from China and Hong Kong, followed by the Russian Federation (26.92%). Five US airports accounted for >90% of the risk. Results here will help to inform decisions related to the design of ASF virus surveillance strategies in the US.

Transboundary spread of pig diseases: the role of international trade and travel

As globalization increases the interconnectedness between nations, economies, and industries, the introduction of diseases will continue to remain a prominent threat to the livestock sector and the trade of animals and animal products, as well as the livelihoods of farmers, food security and public health. The global pig sector, with its size and dichotomy between production type and biosecurity level, is particularly vulnerable to the transmission of transboundary animal diseases such as African and classical swine fever, foot and mouth disease, or porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. All of the above pose a constant threat to swine health, mainly as a result of both formal and informal international trade.Inspired in the risk assessment methodology, this paper classifies and provides an overview of the different pig disease introduction and exposure pathways, illustrated with abundant examples. Introduction pathways are classified as formal international trade (by product), informal international trade (by product), and spread through fomites. Formal trade of pigs and pork products is regulated by legislation and measures protecting animal populations from exotic diseases. Much more difficult to control is the transboundary swine disease transmission originating through informal trade, which entails illegal smuggling, but also the informal cross-border transfer of animals and products for personal use or within informal market chains. Meat products are most commonly mentioned, although fomites have also played a role in some cases, with live pigs, being more difficult to smuggle playing a role less frequently. The main exposure pathways are also described with the oral route playing a prominent role.Risk assessments can aid in the identification of pathways of pathogen introduction and exposure. However, quantitative information on informal disease introduction pathways remains very scarce and often incomplete, making it difficult to estimate the actual magnitudes of risks. Nevertheless, this knowledge is deemed essential to set up risk based awareness, prevention and surveillance programs that correspond to reality.

Characterization of Salmonella enterica serovars recovered from meat products legally and illegally imported into the EU reveals the presence of multiresistant and AmpC-producing isolates

BACKGROUND

Food products of animal origin brought into the EU from third countries, both legally and illegally, can harbor foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella enterica. In this study, we examined five S. enterica isolates recovered either from legally imported chicken meat (n = 3) or from meat products confiscated from air travel passengers arriving in Germany (n = 2). The isolates were serotyped and further characterized by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, PCR-detection and sequencing of genes associated with antimicrobial resistances, and macrorestriction analysis. Transferability of resistance to third-generation cephalosporins was assessed by conjugation experiments and the plasmids tested for their incompatibility groups.

RESULTS

The three isolates from legal imports were identified as S. Heidelberg or as non-flagellated. All three isolates were identified as AmpC producers carrying bla CMY-2 and as non-susceptible to ciprofloxacin. They were additionally resistant to tetracycline and sulfamethoxazole. The bla CMY-2-carrying plasmids were transferable by conjugation and belonged to incompatibility groups IncI1 or IncA/C. The two isolates from illegally imported meat belonged to the serovars Infantis or Weltevreden. The former was phenotypically resistant to five classes of antimicrobial agents while the S. Weltevreden isolate was fully susceptible to all agents tested.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study demonstrate that meat products imported from third countries, both legally and illegally, can harbor multiresistant Salmonella enterica. Consequently, these imports could constitute a source for the dissemination of antimicrobial resistant isolates, including those resistant to third-generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones.

Determinants of adoption of alternative response to foot and mouth disease: micro-level evidence of smallholder pastoralist in north East District, Botswana

This paper examines factors influencing the adoption of alternative response to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) among smallholder beef producers in the dry lands of Africa, specifically, North East district in Botswana. Principal component analysis was used to categorise FMD responses. Thereafter, a multivariate probit regression model was used to examine the effect of socioeconomic and institutional factors on the adoption of alternative responses to FMD. The study found that household size, opportunity cost incurred, frequency of contact with extension officers, training received on FMD, distance to the nearest market, as well as distance to grazing and water areas had a positive effect on the adoption of alternative responses to the outbreak. We conclude that although producers are aware of the detriments of FMD to their livelihoods, some still choose not to adopt the responses and socioeconomic and institutional characteristics play a role.

Variety of Antimicrobial Resistances and Virulence Factors in Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from Meat Products Legally and Illegally Introduced to Germany

Food products of animal origin can serve as a vehicle for Staphylococcus (S.) aureus, a facultative pathogen involved in a variety of diseases. As a result, international trade and illegal transportation of foodstuffs can facilitate the distribution of S. aureus over long distances. In this study, we investigated S. aureus isolates recovered from meat products confiscated from passengers returning from non-EU countries at two German airports and from samples of legally imported meats from non-EU countries. The aim was to characterize isolates in regard to their genetic relatedness as well as their antimicrobial resistance profiles and major virulence factors in order to assess potential risks associated with these products. The isolates were characterized by spa typing, MLST, macrorestriction analysis, microarray analysis and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. MRSA isolates were further characterized by dru typing. The characteristics of the majority of the isolates indicated a human origin, rather than an association with livestock. The results further revealed a considerable heterogeneity among the MRSA isolates, despite their common origin. Overall, a plenitude of major virulence factors and antimicrobial resistances was detected among the isolates, highlighting the potential risks associated with contaminated meat products and the transportation of such products among different countries.