The government has raised its assessment of the risk of products contaminated with African swine fever entering the UK from 'low' to 'medium'.
However, the risk of exposure of African swine fever (ASF) to the UK pig population remains 'low', the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) said.
The disease presents no risk to humans, but for pigs it is often fatal. There is no effective treatment or vaccine.
The UK government assessment upgrade follows recent outbreaks in commercial herds in Romania and Poland and the discovery of ASF for the first time in Bulgaria.
Consignments of pig meat from Romania, which has culled well over 180,000 pigs because of ASF in recent weeks, have entered the UK, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) said in its latest disease update.
If the disease were to reach the UK it would have a devastating effect on the export market and would also mean the humane culling of pigs on infected premises to prevent further spread.
Farmers and keepers have thus been urged not to feed catering waste of any description, or domestic food waste, to pigs. It is illegal to do so. This is because of the risk of spreading disease.
A statement by APHA said: "Fresh or frozen pig meat from any ASF-restricted zone cannot be consigned to other EU member states, but commercially produced fresh or frozen pig meat derived from pigs raised outside the restriction zones can continue to be traded.
"We have reassessed the risk and consider that, on a temporary basis, given the increase in ASF outbreaks in commercial pigs in the last two weeks and the continued import of frozen pork meat from affected countries, the risk is increased to medium for the entry of contaminated or infected products into UK both over the last month and looking forward. This risk level will be reassessed every two weeks.
The statement added: "The risk of exposure to the pig population in the UK is still dependent on the level of biosecurity on pig premises and is still considered to be “low”, although the situation is being kept under review."
Elsewhere in the world, Chinese authorities have culled more than 24,000 pigs in four provinces in efforts to control the spread of the disease.
China is a major pig producing country and accounts for approximately half the global population of swine, estimated at 500 million
