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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to restrict meat and plant imports from the United States of America to prevent the entry of chronic wasting disease.

The rules for the importation into Great Britain of meat and meat products are laid down in GB legislation. Consignments must be accompanied by animal and public health certification and enter GB through a Border Control Post where checks are carried out to ensure that import conditions have been met.

Fresh meat of cervids (deer meat) can only be imported from the USA if it complies with supplementary guarantees in the model health certificates that mitigate the risk of chronic wasting disease (CWD) incursion from fresh meat.

There are no restrictions in place on imports of plants from the USA in relation to CWD. A risk assessment carried out in 2023 indicates that the risk of transmission of CWD via plants is very low.