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African swine fever, a lethal, incurable disease of pigs, broke out last
month in southern Portugal. The disease, for which there is no vaccine, used to
be endemic in the Iberian peninsula, but it has been five years since the last
case, and the European Commission thought it had been eradicated. This outbreak
is in the same place as the last case, making it unlikely the virus has been
reintroduced. Now scientists are looking again at the theory that the virus can
persist for years in ticks.