The Agriculture Minister of the Philippines has announced that over 7,000 pigs near the country’s capital Manila have been killed in response to the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF). The virus was first reported in China in August 2018 but has since spread to Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Mongolia, North Korea, and now the Philippines. ASF is not harmful to humans but causes hemorrhagic fever in pigs that almost always ends in death. As of September 2019, there is no antidote or vaccine for the virus, meaning that a mass cull of affected livestock is the only known method of preventing the spread of this disease. This has caused a global increase in pork prices. In May 2019, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that pork prices in China had risen by up to 50%. The United Kingdom, United States, and Australia have increased efforts to prevent the disease from arriving. Experts estimate that an outbreak in Australia alone would cost the country USD 34 billion.
