Pigs and Ebola: The Secret Reservoir?

Are pigs a potential source of an Ebola pandemic in Africa and elsewhere? There are at least 288,000 pigs in Liberia where Ebola has broken out in people. Could Ebola-infected pigs spread Ebola throughout the country? The World Health Organization on Ebola: "Pig farms in Africa can play a role in the amplification of infection because of the presence of fruit bats on these farms." New York Times article mentions pigs eating garbage in Conakry, the capital of Guinea (where Ebola is spreading now)

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Mali's health minister says three suspected cases of the deadly Ebola virus have been detected in the country after an outbreak in Guinea

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/04/04/mali-reports-three-suspected-ebola-cases

Wikipedia on Mali:
Mali

ⁱ/ˈmɑːli/, officially the Republic of Mali (French: République du Mali, French pronunciation: [maˈli]), is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is bordered by Algeria to the north, Niger to the east, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire to the south, Guinea to the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania to the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) with a population of 14.5 million. Its capital is Bamako.

Factfish: As of 2011 Mali had about 79,000 pigs: http://www.factfish.com/statistic-country/mali/pigs