African Swine Fever: Understanding Risk Without Creating Alarm

ASF is not present in Portugal, yet it is a risk worth understanding — not to create alarm, but to ask what we can reasonably do to reduce it.

At Raízes da Montanha, one of the principles we are trying to follow is that good land management requires us to recognise risks honestly but also to keep those risks in perspective.

African Swine Fever, known in Portugal as Peste Suína Africana (PSA), is one of those risks.

The first and most important point is this:

African Swine Fever is not currently present in Portugal.

Portugal has been free of the disease for many years, with the last recorded outbreak occurring in November 1999. However, ASF is present elsewhere in Europe. During 2026 the European situation has continued to cause concern, affecting both domestic pigs and wild boar in a number of EU countries. This does not mean that ASF is inevitably coming to Monchique. It does mean that it is sensible to understand it.

What is African Swine Fever?

ASF is a viral disease affecting domestic pigs and wild boar (Javali). It does not infect humans and presents no danger to human health.

For pigs, however, the consequences can be extremely serious. The disease can cause very high mortality, while the disease-control measures required following an outbreak can themselves have substantial economic consequences. There is therefore an important distinction between the disease itself and the wider consequences of controlling it.

Why are we thinking about this at Raízes da Montanha?

As part of developing RDM, we are undertaking a financial, operational and investment risk assessment. The purpose isn't to compile a list of reasons why people shouldn't farm or invest in Monchique. Quite the opposite. Anyone considering investing significant time and money into restoring rural land should understand the risks involved. Once we understand them, we can ask a much more useful question:

Which of those risks can we reduce?

Wildfire is an obvious example.

We cannot eliminate wildfire from the Serra de Monchique. But through active land management, vegetation management, better water retention, grazing, appropriate planting and maintaining productive landscapes, we can attempt to reduce both the probability and consequences. We think biological risks deserve the same rational approach.

ASF is therefore included within our risk assessment not because we expect an outbreak, but because the potential consequences of one are sufficiently significant that it would be irresponsible simply to ignore it.

A disease can travel much further than a Javali

It would be easy to think of ASF principally in terms of the movement of infected wild boar across the landscape. But there is another important pathway. Human activity can inadvertently move the virus over very considerable distances.

The ASF virus is highly resistant and can survive in contaminated pork products and on materials such as footwear, clothing, vehicles and equipment. That means transmission does not necessarily have to progress gradually through neighbouring populations of wild boar. A person can travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres in a matter of hours. This has particular relevance for an international visitor destination such as Monchique.

People come to our Serra from many parts of Europe and from around the world. Some may have recently visited farms, walked through rural areas, hunted or had other contact with environments in countries where ASF is present. This certainly does not mean that tourists themselves are a danger. ASF does not infect people.

It means simply that international movement creates a potential pathway by which contaminated material can travel much greater distances than a Javali ever could.

Pork and pork products brought from affected areas are another particular concern. If contaminated food waste becomes accessible to domestic pigs or Javali, it can provide a route for infection. The answer is certainly not to discourage tourism.

Tourism is enormously important to Monchique and we should continue encouraging people to come here and experience the Serra. The appropriate response is proportionate awareness and sensible biosecurity.

An outbreak could affect more than pig keepers

This is particularly relevant in a landscape such as Monchique. If ASF were detected in domestic pigs, strict veterinary disease-control measures would follow. If it were detected in wild Javali, the authorities would establish an infected zone. Its geographical extent would depend upon the circumstances and epidemiological assessment; it is not simply an automatic fixed-radius circle around where an infected animal was found.

Measures within an affected area can include restrictions affecting movements of people and vehicles, hunting and recreational activities, together with active searches for dead Javali and increased disease surveillance. That means the potential consequences extend beyond somebody who happens to keep pigs.

In a rural municipality where agriculture, forestry, hunting, walking, nature and tourism are closely connected, an animal-health emergency could potentially become a wider economic and land-management issue. That is worth understanding, without exaggerating it.

Risk is not the same as inevitability

This distinction is important.

Identifying a risk does not mean predicting that it will happen. If somebody considering buying and restoring rural property in Monchique asked us about the risks of doing so, we would certainly discuss wildfire. We would discuss water availability, land condition, access, the cost of restoration and the pressure that Javali can place upon cultivated land. ASF should perhaps sit somewhere on that list as an external biological risk. But the conversation should not end there.

A useful risk assessment should identify not only the hazard but also the measures capable of reducing its probability or consequences.

Prevention is therefore an investment issue

Portugal already has prevention and contingency arrangements for ASF. The national approach includes biosecurity, surveillance and early detection, management of wild-boar populations, official controls, contingency preparation, communication and awareness.

These measures matter. Good surveillance increases the chance that disease will be discovered early. Good biosecurity reduces opportunities for transmission. Responsible management of domestic pigs reduces contact with potential sources of infection.

Monitoring Javali populations and reporting dead animals improves our understanding of what is happening in the wider landscape.

And an effective contingency plan means that, should the disease ever arrive, authorities are not beginning their response from scratch.

These aren't reasons to be frightened of investing in rural Portugal. They are examples of how identifiable risks can be managed.

The importance of Javali

Wild boar inevitably form part of this discussion because they are susceptible to ASF and can be involved in maintaining and spreading infection. That does not mean that every Javali represents a disease threat. Nor should concern about ASF become an excuse for indiscriminate action against wild boar.

It does mean, however, that understanding Javali populations, monitoring mortality, reducing unnecessary contact between wild and domestic pigs and having effective population-management strategies form part of sensible disease preparedness. Portugal's ASF prevention strategy itself recognises wild-boar population management as one of its preventive components. For those of us keeping pigs, separation is particularly important. Domestic pigs should be managed so that direct contact with Javali is prevented as far as reasonably possible.

What about farms that welcome visitors?

This is something we need to consider ourselves at Raízes da Montanha. One of our objectives is for RDM eventually to become a demonstration farm where people can visit, exchange knowledge and see regenerative land management in practice.

Welcoming people onto a working farm also brings responsibilities. We don't believe that requires intrusive restrictions. It requires proportionate biosecurity.

Visitors who have recently been hunting, visited pig holdings or had direct contact with Javali in an ASF-affected country should make us aware before entering areas containing our pigs. Footwear and equipment can be cleaned and disinfected where appropriate. Visitors should not feed our pigs, and outside food waste should never be allowed to become accessible to domestic pigs or Javali. These are small precautions. If we are going to encourage international visitors to experience working farms and the rural landscape of Monchique, making simple biosecurity part of responsible rural tourism seems entirely reasonable.

At RDM we intend to incorporate this into our own visitor procedures.

Something every landowner can do

There is one particularly simple contribution that people living and working in the countryside can make.

Report dead Javali.

A dead wild boar should not simply be assumed to have died naturally.

Portugal uses passive surveillance of dead Javali as an important early-warning mechanism for ASF. Dead wild animals can be reported through the ANIMAS system so that the competent authorities are made aware of them. Early detection matters enormously in disease control. A single report from a farmer, hunter, walker or landowner could therefore be much more important than the person making it initially realises.

Protecting confidence in Monchique

There is another reason we believe these subjects should be discussed openly but carefully. Rural areas need investment.

Restoring neglected land, bringing agricultural terraces back into management, creating employment, producing food, reducing fire risk and maintaining the landscape all require people to be willing to invest money, effort and years of their lives. Monchique already presents prospective landowners with challenges. Wildfire is perhaps the most obvious.

Adding unnecessary fear about another potential risk would achieve nothing, but neither does ignoring identifiable risks. Confidence comes from demonstrating that risks are understood and, wherever possible, actively managed. That is the approach we are trying to take at Raízes da Montanha.

Awareness, not alarm

Portugal is currently free of African Swine Fever. That deserves to be repeated. ASF is nevertheless present elsewhere in Europe, and Portugal maintains prevention and contingency arrangements because introduction of the disease remains a risk worth preparing for.

Our interest in ASF is therefore not about predicting an outbreak. It is about asking the same question that we ask about fire, water, soil degradation and other challenges facing the Serra:

What can we reasonably do now to reduce the risk and increase the resilience of our farms, our landscape and our community?

If we want people to continue investing in, restoring and caring for the rural landscape of Monchique, identifying risks is only half the job.

The more important task is reducing them.