Salt-cure meat or salted meat, for example ham, bacon, or kippered herring, is meat or fish preserved or cured by salt or brine. Salt beef was a staple of the diet of the British navy. Salted meat and fish are commonly eaten as a staple of the diet in North Africa, Southern China, and in the Arctic where they are associated with nasopharyngeal cancer caused by infection by the Epstein-Barr Virus. One study hypothesizes that a covector is anaerobic bacteria found in salted fish.