Study: Humans facilitated spread of ASF between wild boar and pigs

African swine fever spread rapidly in Romania in 2018 due to human movement of pigs and pork products, not just wild boar migration, new research says.

July 9, 2026

Farmer in red plaid shirt feeding and interacting with multiple pigs in a concrete farm enclosure

budabar | BigStock.com

Wild boar alone could not have carried the African swine fever (ASF) virus as far and as fast as it spread in 2018 — but humans could, according to research published in the journal Nature Communications.

Wild boar caused about 27% of outbreaks on domestic farms in Romania between June and December 2018, while farm-to-farm spread accounted for about 60%, according to the study, led by the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) and the National Veterinary School of Toulouse (ENVT). About 39% of outbreaks among wild boar appear to have come from domestic pigs.

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