Shortly after officials detained six migrants from the Dominican Republic who had landed on the western coast of Puerto Rico on Sept. 24, a team of investigators in white protective gear descended on the beach. They weren’t searching for drugs or contraband but another threat: pork.
The Western Hemisphere registered its first outbreak of African swine fever virus in almost 40 years on July 28 at pig farms in the Dominican Republic. By September the devastating disease had been found in neighboring Haiti. Now the U.S., the world’s largest pork producer after China, is scrambling to keep the malady from washing ashore and shutting down its $7.7 billion pork export industry.
