New Zealand issues import health standards for pork products

MAF Biosecurity New Zealand has issued provisional Import Health Standards (IHS) for pork, pork products and byproducts from Canada, the US, Mexico and the EU.

The standards include risk management measures based on a risk analysis on Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PPRS) virus in pork. The disease is found in many pig-producing countries, but not in New Zealand or Australia.

The 2006 risk analysis concluded that the risk of PRRS in imported meat is non-negligible, and the following measures were recommended to manage the identified risk:

• Pork must be either from a country free from PRRS;
   
• or treated prior to import by approved cooking or pH change;
   
• or in the form of consumer-ready cuts.

The addition of consumer-ready cuts of fresh meat was added as a risk mitigation option in the draft IHSs that were issued for public consultation in November 2007.

A full assessment of all submissions to the draft IHSs was made at the completion of the public consultation period. As a result, the provisional IHSs have been modified as follows:

• Curing - the lower end of the pH treatment range has been changed from 5 or lower to 6 or lower. Research shows that infectivity is rapidly lost at pH 6 or lower.
   
• The definition of cuts has been revised so it is internationally verifiable and certifiable and limited to consumer-ready cuts.
   
• Consumer-ready cuts for direct retail sale must have all major lymph nodes removed, and be sold in packages that cannot exceed 3kg.

''Having considered the public submissions, all relevant science and a wide range of expert opinion, MAF considers the PRRS risk associated with consumer-ready pork imports to be effectively managed by the measures proposed in the IHSs,'' said Barry O'Neil, Deputy Director General, MAF Biosecurity New Zealand.

Until 2001, pork was imported into New Zealand without sanitary measures for PRRS virus. A study in 1999 provided experimental evidence that it was possible to transmit the virus to healthy pigs by feeding them fresh meat taken from infected pigs. Subsequently, MAF introduced provisional measures requiring that all pork imported from countries with PRRS be either cooked or cured to certain specifications until a full risk analysis could be completed.

The primary means by which PRRS could enter New Zealand - via the import of live pigs or pig semen - is already strictly controlled. The 2006 risk analysis looked at the risks associated with PRRS in pig meat. MAF considers the likelihood of the PRRS virus entering New Zealand via pork and infecting pigs is very low, and the measures being proposed will effectively manage the risks.

The four draft IHSs stipulate that consumer-ready cuts are the only form of pork that can be imported from countries with PRRS without further treatment. These cuts would weigh less than 3kg, be packaged for direct retail sale and have all major lymph nodes removed.