FORTY NINE pigs suffering from a deadly virus called blue ear pig disease were imported from Northern Ireland for slaughter at a plant in the Republic, the Department of Agriculture admitted last night.
The pigs were found by Department officials testing for the disease on animals brought south of the Border for slaughter recently.
The island of Ireland had been clear of the disease until early this year when it was identified in a number of herds in Northern Ireland. Since then there have been over 30 outbreaks on Northern pig farms.
When the disease was identified in the North, the Department of Agriculture in the Republic issued a warning that it could be introduced into herds by movement of animals, the use of semen or embryos, or carried on the air or by transport vehicles.
The Department said the disease was highly contagious and affected the respiratory and reproductive systems in pigs. It has no implications for human health.
The news of the importation of pigs from the North suffering from the disease, which is known officially as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, will anger southern producers, who have been seeking a ban on such imports.
One pig producer, Mr Anthony McNicholas, from Co Mayo, said last night that the importation of such pigs to be slaughtered at factories in the Republic endangered the health status of all the herds in the Republic.
"I know that most pig farmers in the Republic would like to see the same kind of precautions as were taken when the Newcastle Disease was identified in poultry in the North," he said.
"It does not seem right to me that pigs should be taken from a place where there is infection and brought to areas where there is none, even if it's only for slaughter."
But last night the Department said it was in constant communication with its counterpart in the North and it did not want to ban the import of pigs from the North because of" the disease.
A spokeswoman said the Department understood that northern and southern producers had met and were trying to organise a voluntary restriction on importing pigs rather than introducing a ban on imports, a move the Department considered appropriate.
The spokeswoman added that as far as the Department knew only one plant in the Republic - was accepting pigs from North. It was investigating unconfirmed reports that some small plants were also importing Northern pigs for slaughter.