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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an economic assessment of the potential effect of African Swine Fever being identified in the UK on (a) the public purse and (b) pig producers’ incomes.

The Government has estimated that the economic effect of a reasonable worst case scenario outbreak of African Swine Fever could cost the UK up to £90 million at 2019 prices. This total estimate includes costs to the industry of up to £85 million, which reflects the lost value of animals from culling, movement bans and trade restrictions, and costs of up to £5 million for the Government for disease control activities.

While this estimate represents an informed assessment of the potential impact of an outbreak, exact costs would be determined by a large number of factors including geographic location, the husbandry system, epidemiology of the outbreak and whether wildlife was involved.