IFA warning: African swine fever spreading

Distance in today’s world erects no barriers to the spread of contagion, which is why Agriculture Minister Michael Creed and the president of the Irish Farmers’ Association have issued warnings about the westward path of African swine fever, an infection that threatens no harm to humans but which kills pigs and wild boar.

In China, which has close to half of the planet’s stocks, 1.2m pigs have been culled. The disease, for which there is no vaccination, has spread to Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia and North Korea. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Office fears that Burma, the Philippines and Laos could be next in line.