Socio-economic, industrial and cultural parameters of pig-borne infections

The pork-processing industry has been possibly the fastest growing sector of the food industry in recent years. Specialization, genetic homogenization of the pig population, high density of the breeding population, reduced human-animal interactions, slaughter at a lower age and increased international trade of live animals and pork are parameters that affect, positively or negatively, the emergence of novel pig-borne pathogens, many of which are pig-specific, and many of which have significant zoonotic potential, as observed in recent outbreaks of Nipah virus and Streptococcus suis in Southeast Asia and China, respectively. Numerous other pathogens are transmitted to humans through direct contact with or consumption of pig products, and globalization trends in trade and human population movements have resulted in outbreaks of pig-borne diseases even in Muslim countries and in Israel, where pork consumption is religiously prohibited. The role of pigs as potential reservoirs of antibiotic-resistant pathogens or genes encoding resistance, and the role of feral pigs as a reservoir of zoonotic disease, are scientific fields in direct need of further research.