World: African swine fever has reached Western Hemisphere for the first time in 40 years; USDA hopes to prevent it from moving any further

On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced it had seized 320 pounds of bologna at a border crossing near El Paso, Texas. The meat, hidden in the back seat of a 2012 Honda Odyssey, was being transported illegally from Mexico to be sold for profit in the U.S. It was at least the third such seizure of pork products this year, the latest in a long line of high-profile bacon banditry incidents. As it turns out, there’s good reason for all the swine surveillance. A deadly, incurable disease called African swine fever (ASF) has been detected in the Western Hemisphere for the first time in 40 years, and U.S. regulators are doing everything they can to keep it out of the country. “The outbreak … is much more deadly than we had in the Western Hemisphere back in the 80s,” says Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian for the National Pork Producers Council. “So it’s very concerning from an animal health point of view.” The virus poses no threat to humans and no food safety concern, but it ...