During the fourth quarter of 2021 officers of the USDA-APHIS Smuggling Trade Compliance Authority confiscated close to a ton of illegally imported pork, poultry and ruminant products. From New York City retail establishments. In 2021 USDA-APHIS in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security- Customs and Border Protection Agency seized 110 tons of illegal products.
It is noted that many provinces in China are endemic for avian influenza, Newcastle disease, foot and mouth disease, swine vesicular disease, classical swine fever and African swine fever. All of these diseases are exotic to U.S. hog herds or poultry flocks and represent an extreme danger to our domestic livestock and poultry industries.
In past decades illegal importation of raw and in some cases partly cooked meat products have resulted in introduction of exotic diseases such as African swine fever into Portugal and Spain in the late 1950's and foot and mouth disease into England in 2019. Recently confiscated pork products carried by air-travelers entering Japan and Taiwan have yielded African swine fever virus.