The disease exclusively infects pigs — not humans, said Paul Sundberg, the executive director of the Swine Health Information Center. But it’s highly infectious and lethal for pigs, he said. The spread to the U.S. could prove disastrous.
“It would stop our pork exports, and we export between 25- 30% of our product right now,” Sundberg said.
When the Dominican Republic dealt with the disease from 1978 to 1980, it led to 192,473 pigs being culled. Cuba, Brazil and Haiti also had the virus at the time, which led to the culling of another 1.2 million pigs.
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