Pig Farmers Are Offered Payments

The Malaysian government offered to compensate pig farmers for a worsening viral epidemic that has devastated their $395-million industry and killed 71 people. But the compensation, about $13 for each pig killed in a campaign to slaughter more than a million of the animals, would be much less than what farmers have been seeking. Authorities first blamed the human deaths on Japanese encephalitis, a virus transmitted by mosquitoes. But researchers later isolated a mysterious second virus that is believed to have caused some of the deaths and is thought to be spread by contact with live, infected pigs.