Outbreaks on Hispaniola raise worries that African swine fever could spread to the United States, which has never had the disease, and temporarily cripple U.S. pork exports. Governments often block imports of pork from countries where the disease has been found to prevent transmission.
The United States already prohibits Haitian and Dominican pork due to another pig disease there, according to the USDA.
Still, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is increasing inspections for illegal pork on flights from Hispaniola and making sure airplane garbage is properly disposed of, the USDA said.
The USDA in July reported the Dominican Republic had the Americas' first cases of African swine fever in nearly 40 years.
Last week, the USDA confirmed Haiti's outbreak through testing at a laboratory on Plum Island in New York, the OIE said. Haiti is conducting surveillance for the disease and imposed a quarantine to control the outbreak, the OIE said.
African swine fever is harmless to humans but often fatal to pigs. It originated in Africa before spreading to Europe and Asia and has killed hundreds of millions of pigs.
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