The Guardian view on African swine fever: bad for people as well as pigs | Editorial

The current outbreak, linked to smallholders, is likely to affect prices around the world. But supersized animal farms are not the answer

In the coming weeks, bacon sandwich eaters in Newcastle and dairy farmers in California may find their pockets hit by developments thousands of miles away. The culprit is an outbreak of African swine fever which is sweeping through Asia, leading to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam, in what one expert calls the world’s biggest animal disease outbreak to date. The US and the UK are watching keenly. Denmark has built a 43-mile border fence to keep out wild boar. The devastating impact in Asia and the consequences already being felt further afield shed light on the globalisation of modern food production.

The highly infectious disease is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs; there is, as yet, no vaccine. It was first detected outside Africa in 1957, in Portugal. It re-emerged in Europe more recently. But never before has it spread so rapidly and damagingly. In China, which until this outbreak reared around half the world’s pigs, every province has been affected. The disease has already shown up in Mongolia, Cambodia and North Korea. The UN Food And Agriculture Organization says it believes the cases reported by governments are underestimates. Many farmers may quietly sell infected meat rather than relying on promises of compensation and enmeshing themselves in disease- control obligations. Officials may also be reluctant to own up to problems.

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