How to feed, water and house a shipment of 100 highly valuable pedigree pigs unexpectedly diverted to Bermuda on a flight was just part of the problem confronted by the Government’s chief veterinary officer last week.

Jonathan Nisbett also had to consider whether to release the animals on welfare grounds, not knowing how long they had been confined in their wooden crates — and avoid a potentially costly lawsuit against the Government from expectant customers if he did so.

The arrival of the porcine passengers made international headlines.

It was reported that the aircraft, which was diverted to Bermuda during a Boeing B787-9K flight from Amsterdam to Mexico City on Friday evening, encountered ventilation issues causing a stink for passengers and crew.

Dr Nisbett said when the first report came to him at about 5pm, scant information was given.

He told The Royal Gazette: “We didn’t really know what we were in for. On our way to the airport, a report came in saying ‘the captain has reported a lot of pigs and I am not joking’.

“I was a little floored when they showed me a manifest of 4,300kg, or 9,600lb, of live animals.

“Eventually, three crates were brought out and we could see fully what we were dealing with — we had about 100 pigs that were around four months of age.

“You ask yourself, what do you do? We are always aware that something like this could happen, but how do you prepare for it?”

Dr Nisbett said the captain was adamant that he would not take the pigs back on board.

The vet knew that the pigs would have to remain on the island at least overnight and a decision was made to transport them in the crates via luggage trolleys to the old post office processing facility across the tarmac.

On inspection, the animals appeared very healthy, with papers confirming they were disease-free.

“From a disease control standpoint, I was not very worried. I was more worried about how we were going to care for them,” Dr Nisbett said.

“What made it difficult for me was, I could see from documentation that their travels originated in Denmark, but I didn’t know when they got put into these crates. I didn’t know when they were last fed and watered — the answer is guided by the behaviour of the pigs — or how long they were going to be here.

“At the same time, I could see that the travel crates were sealed and I knew that if I broke those seals, Mexico would have every right to reject the shipment because they wouldn’t know where their animals had been. All the documentation would have been invalidated.

"The question became, would the Bermuda Government be on the hook for the value of this shipment — $400,000 for the entire investment including the livestock, flights, transportation, laboratory and veterinary costs, etc.“

Animal control staff helped ensure the animals received water.

On Saturday morning, Dr Nisbett took countless phone calls and e-mails from KLM, asking where, and in what state, the pigs were in.

“I was the only one who could give answers, I was trying to communicate, and send them photos and videos.”

Dr Nisbett worked throughout the day on a contingency plan in case the pigs had to be released from the crates and remain on the island permanently.

“I figured that by Sunday, it would have been the third day without feeding. That is not acceptable. So by Saturday night, we were looking to break the seals and move them off-site. We reached out to people with tractors and trailers to plan something for Sunday morning.

“It was crack of dawn on Sunday when I finally had a glimmer of hope — KLM was working on getting a flight to Bermuda.

“They soon confirmed there would be a charter flight; that gives you an idea how valuable these pigs are. These were all pedigree pigs. They are highly valuable breeding stock.”

Next, a plan had to be devised to feed the pigs “without causing a riot”.

This entailed a team dropping chicken feed in the right manner to avoid aggressive behaviour by the hungry hogs. The feed was borrowed from farmer Tom Wadson. “It went very well,” Dr Nisbett said.

On arrival of the KLM 777 from Amsterdam, the pilot told Dr Nisbett that Bermuda had become famous back in the Netherlands.

The animals were boarded and pulled off the tarmac at 6.17pm on Sunday.

Dr Nisbett added: “I must give thanks to the animal wardens, Tom Wadson, the Department of Parks, Skyport, airport security, airport ground crew, the airport duty officer and Delta Air Lines, which is the agent for KLM. There was a lot of co-operation between all of those entities.”