Josie helping to save nation’s bacon by sniffing out pigmeat at airport

A spaniel named Josie is helping to save Ireland’s bacon by sniffing out illegal imports of pigmeat at Dublin Airport.

The dog, which features on Ear to the Ground tonight, is helping the Department of Agriculture guard against the rampant African swine fever, which has killed 200m pigs in China this year.

Rashers, sausages, and pudding are the traditional staples of the full Irish breakfast, but they would be off the shelves if the disease — which has spread to 10 Asian countries and 14 European countries — hits Ireland.

The virus is harmless to humans but is fatal to pigs and could be carried into the country in something as innocuous as a ham sandwich.

RTÉ’s flagship farming series reveals a spaniel called Josie employed by customs officials at Dublin Airport is on the frontline of Ireland’s biosecurity strategy to sniff out pig meat in passenger luggage.

“Our biggest concern would be people bringing back infected meat from abroad,” said June Fanning from the National Disease Control Centre at the Department of Agriculture.

“We would encourage people not to bring pork or pork products from areas affected with the disease.

“[The disease] does survive for a very long time, months and months, in even cured products like salami and sausages and can survive for years in frozen products.”

She said it could put thousands of pigs at risk of suffering a very painful death.

Ear to the Ground reveals record prices due to the worldwide bacon shortage mean the country’s farmers are on the pig’s back if we manage to keep the highly contagious swine fever at bay.

The cameras show the stringent security measures carried out in McAuliffe’s pig farm in Castleisland, Co Kerry, which produces 50,000 pigs a year.

Visitors have to take a full shower, change their clothes, and have frequent foot baths to protect from possible germs.

The show reveals the 400 pig farms around the country produce a staggering 3m pigs a year.

Pig farmer Shane McAuliffe said the bio-security measures extend to every part of the business.

“We have our own transport company and we look after our manure, our feed delivery, and the transport of our pigs so it means that no other trucks come into our farm.

We know the risk of African swine fever coming into a commercial pig farm in Ireland like this one here is very unlikely, but if it got into the country through a pet pig or backyard pig, it means our entire country is closed down to pig meat exports.

"We would lose our market and we would close down tomorrow morning.”

But so far the global pig shortage has resulted in record pork prices with the meat fetching €2 a kilo which is an increase of a third from around €1.50 a kilo at the start of the year.

Farmers who were barely breaking even in recent years can now see a highly profitable future.

“Over 500m pigs have been culled in China so there is not enough pork in the world to feed the Chinese demand,” said Joe O’Connor, commercial director of Truly Irish.

Mr O’Connor added: “The price cycle will continue for a long time, for at least five years, because there is no vaccine for the disease and it will be a long time until the Chinese re-stock.”

Ear to the Ground will be shown on RTÉ One tonight at 7pm.