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Some 893kg of illegal meat was seized by Department of Agriculture officials at Dublin airport in the first three months of this year.
Travellers are being reminded about the risk posed by African swine fever, which can survive for weeks or months in chilled, frozen or preserved pig meat products such as hams and salamis.
The importation of meat or meat products into Ireland from non-EU countries is banned.
Outbreaks of African swine fever have been attributed to the feeding of infected food waste (swill) to pigs, particularly in Asia, where swill feeding has only been recently prohibited.
The feeding of food waste that contains or that may have been in contact with meat products has been banned in Ireland since 2001.
“We can keep African swine fever out of Ireland, if everyone, including farmers, veterinary practitioners, industry representatives and members of the public play their part,” Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed said.
Searches of passenger luggage is being carried out using scanning equipment and a sniffer dog.
African Swine first appeared in the EU in 2014 and since then cases have been detected in wild boar and domestic pigs in nine EU countries.
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