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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Phoebe Weston

‘The pigs have disappeared’: swine fever threatens food source for millions as disease hits wild herds

A bearded pig on Borneo.
A bearded pig on Borneo where numbers have declined by 90% to 100% since African swine fever arrived on the island in 2021. Photograph: John Sullivan/Alamy

Populations of wild pigs are crashing due to the spread of African swine fever (ASF), threatening the livelihoods of millions who depend on them for food, researchers warn.

With a fatality rate of almost 100%, ASF has swept across Asia, Europe and Africa, devastating domestic and wild pig populations over the past 10 to 20 years. The impacts are especially significant in Borneo, in south-east Asia, where bearded pig numbers have declined by between 90% and 100% since it arrived on the island in 2021, researchers said.

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