The cost-cutting from April targets the team that screens pork for African swine fever at Dover, Kent.
Dover District Council’s port health and public protection chief, Lucy Manzano, said it would “seriously undermine” Britain’s ability to pinpoint any potential biosecurity threat.
The inspection team was set up in September 2022 as ASF outbreaks in Europe soared. Since then, 60 tons of pork have been seized and more than five tons of illegal meat was confiscated the weekend before Christmas.
Ms Manzano told The Grocer magazine: “If [ASF] lands here, it will result in UK culling programmes, export bans and will have devastating consequences for our pig farmers, wild pig community and reputation.”
A Government spokesman said: “We have strict border controls in place to protect food and animal health safety – and these, along with our high biosecurity standards, remain unchanged.”
