For fairly obvious reasons, Morocco’s pork production sector has never been one of the country’s sectoral heavyweights. In a nation with a majority Muslim population and minority Jewish community, farmers catered mainly to European tourists, producing an estimated 270 tons of pork annually, generating around $1.48 million, according to 2008 figures. In a normal year, pigs would be a peripheral part of government planning, but since the emergence of A(H1N1) flu, better known as swine flu, the public health sector has received extra funding and ramped up its prevention programs. Unlike Egypt, where the government responded to the outbreak by calling for the slaughter of the country’s 300,000 pigs, Morocco’s response has been more measured. There have been no calls to eliminate the pig farms and their estimated 5,000 pigs. The World Health Organization said killing the animals has no effect on the spread of swine flu since they do
