Barking Boar Blight
An affliction that affects porcine of all kinds, Barking Boar Blight is aptly named for one of the symptoms it causes: a cough that sounds like a bark. When infected, wild boar and domestic pigs, as well as others of similar nature, develop a minor cough that progresses into a bark within a day or two. Soon difficulty breathing is joined with agitation, confusion, progressive paralysis, and can eventually lead to death, often from simple starvation. Unfortunately, hunters and farmers are at risk of contracting Barking Boar Blight. Those unlucky individuals develop a horrendous cough within a day, sleepiness and confusion within two, and death by the third day if left untreated. While some farmers have seen other livestock die when the blight hits, especially horses, no symptoms are seen and it has yet to be proven to be from the same cause.
While references to Barking Boar Blight can be found in some records, and a tentative link can be traced to bats, unknowingly or unwillingly, being unaffected hosts to the disease, its origins are in disagreement. Some believe it to be like any disease, simply existing as others do, whereas others believe it has a far more nefarious beginning. A few elves are convinced it is an experiment gone unchecked from the drow to wreck havoc on the surface world using night hunters as carriers of the disease. Some wereboars, who experience the most severe form of the disease and have seen whole tribes killed off within days, are convinced werebats have purposefully created this disease after an unresolved feud traced to centuries past. A small handful of humans and elves are quick to blame vampires, but as none have a good reason for this explanation except pointing out their bat form, it is thought to mostly be blame due to simple animosity.
