Question

The fact that there is an absence of swine in north africa and the middle east today can be most simply attributed to:

Answer 1

I believe the answer is: islams prohibition of pork

islams prohibition of pork mandated all of Muslim population to not consume this type of meat.
Economically, this make people within this region to see the swine population as a redundant organism for their environment since it provide no benefit to their population at all, which cause them to start exterminate the swines.