🔗 Share this article

Spanish authorities investigating the ongoing African swine fever incident in the northeastern region are now considering the possibility that the virus may have escaped from a research facility. Their focus has shifted to several nearby facilities as potential sources.

Confirmed Cases and Economic Stakes

A total of thirteen infections of the fever have been identified in feral pigs in the rural areas outside the Catalan capital beginning on 28 November. This has prompted Spain – the European Union's biggest exporter of pig products – to rush to contain the outbreak before it becomes a significant risk to the country's multi-billion euro pork export sector.

Shifting Investigative Focus

Initially, local authorities suspected the disease may have begun after a boar consumed infected food imported from abroad – possibly a thrown away meat sandwich from a truck driver.

However, the Spanish ministry of agriculture has opened a different investigation after concluding that the strain of the pathogen detected in the deceased animals in the region is not the same as the one reported to be present in other European countries. Investigative findings suggest the identified virus is rather akin to one found in Georgia in the year 2007.

"This finding of a virus like the one that circulated in that country does not, therefore, rule out the chance that its source is a biological containment laboratory," said the agriculture department.

Laboratory Connection Explored

The 'Georgia 2007' viral strain is a 'standard' virus frequently used in scientific studies in containment facilities to research the virus or to test the effectiveness of vaccines, which are currently being developed. The report suggests that the virus might not have originated in animals or meat products from any of the countries where the infection is currently present.

Government Response and Audit

In response, the regional president of Catalonia announced he had instructed the regional research body to conduct an inspection of several facilities that work with the ASF pathogen within a 20km distance of the outbreak site.

"We are not excluding any scenarios when it comes to the source of the incident of this disease, but nor are we confirming any," he said. "Every theory remain on the table. First and foremost, we need to understand what happened."

Latest Containment Measures

The authorities have reported thirteen infections of the virus – each one in dead feral pigs found within six kilometers of the initial focus. They have said the remains of an additional 37 animals found in the zone have been analysed, with all testing negative for swine fever. Specialists sent to the 39 pig farms within the surrounding zone have detected no trace of the illness there. Over 100 personnel from the country's military emergencies unit have additionally been sent to the area to work alongside law enforcement and wildlife rangers.

Worldwide Context of ASF

For a long time endemic to the African continent, ASF is harmless to humans but often deadly to pigs. In 2018, the virus turned up in the People's Republic of China, which is has about half of the world’s pig population. By 2019, there were fears that up to one hundred million pigs had been culled or died. Subsequently, the pathogen was confirmed to be in the Federal Republic of Germany, a country with one of the European Union's biggest swine herds.

The Country's Pivotal Role in Meat Exports

The nation, which is the EU’s largest pork producer, sold pig meat products worth €5.1bn to other European nations in the previous year, and nearly €3.7bn of pork products to destinations outside the bloc. Official data show that the country slaughtered 58 million swine in 2021 – an rise of 40% from a decade earlier.