🔗 Share this article

Spanish officials investigating the ongoing ASF incident in the northeastern region are now considering the chance that the disease could have originated from a research facility. Their focus has shifted to five nearby facilities as possible sources.

Confirmed Cases and Industry Concerns

Thirteen cases of the virus have been confirmed in feral pigs in the rural areas outside Barcelona beginning on 28 November. This has prompted Spain – the European Union's biggest pork exporter – to scramble to control the situation before it escalates into a significant risk to the country's multi-billion euro pig meat export industry.

Evolving Investigative Focus

At first, local authorities suspected the disease may have begun after a wild boar consumed contaminated meat products brought in from abroad – possibly a discarded meat sandwich from a truck driver.

However, the national ministry of agriculture has initiated a new investigation after concluding that the strain of the pathogen detected in the deceased boars in the region is not the same as the one known to be circulating in other European countries. According to a report suggest the identified virus is instead similar to one detected in the country of Georgia in 2007.

"This finding of a virus like the one that circulated in that country does not, therefore, exclude the chance that its source lies in a biological containment facility," stated the agriculture department.

Research Link Examined

The 'Georgia-2007' virus strain is a 'reference' virus commonly employed in scientific studies in containment facilities to study the disease or to test the efficacy of treatments, which are currently under development. The analysis implies that the outbreak may not have started in animals or meat products from any of the countries where the disease is currently active.

Official Response and Review

In reaction, Salvador Illa announced he had ordered the regional research body to conduct an audit of five laboratories that work with the African swine fever pathogen within a 20-kilometer radius of the outbreak site.

"We isn’t ruling out any possibilities when it comes to the source of the incident of African swine fever, but neither is it confirming any," he said. "Every theory remain on the table. Above all, we need to understand the facts."

Latest Control Measures

The agriculture ministry have reported 13 cases of the virus – all of them in deceased feral pigs located within six kilometers of the first detection site. They have said the corpses of 37 more wild animals discovered in the zone have been tested, with every one testing negative for swine fever. Experts dispatched to the 39 swine operations within the 20km radius have found no sign of the disease on those farms. More than 100 members from the nation's military emergencies unit have also been deployed to the area to work alongside law enforcement and forestry agents.

Worldwide Background of African Swine Fever

Long endemic to the African continent, ASF is harmless to humans but frequently deadly to pigs. In 2018, the disease turned up in the People's Republic of China, which is has about half of the global pig population. By the following year, there were concerns that up to 100 million pigs had been culled or died. Subsequently, the pathogen was confirmed to be in the Federal Republic of Germany, home to one of the European Union's largest swine herds.

The Country's Pivotal Role in Pork Exports

The nation, which is the EU’s biggest producer of pig meat, exported pig meat products worth 5.1 billion euros to other EU countries in the previous year, and almost 3.7 billion euros of pork products to markets outside the bloc. National statistics show that Spain processed 58 million swine in the year 2021 – an increase of 40% from a ten years prior.