Spanish officials investigating the ongoing ASF incident in the northeastern region are now exploring the possibility that the virus may have originated from a research facility. Attention has narrowed to several local facilities as potential sources.
Confirmed Cases and Economic Stakes
A total of thirteen cases of the fever have been confirmed in feral pigs in the countryside outside Barcelona beginning on 28 November. This has prompted the country – the European Union's largest exporter of pig products – to rush to contain the outbreak before it escalates into a serious risk to the country's multi-billion euro pig meat export industry.
Evolving Investigative Focus
Initially, local officials suspected the disease started after a boar consumed contaminated food imported from abroad – possibly a discarded food item from a truck driver.
However, the Spanish ministry of agriculture has initiated a new investigation after determining that the strain of the virus found in the deceased boars in Catalonia is not the same as the one reported to be circulating in other European countries. Investigative findings suggest the identified virus is rather similar to one found in Georgia in the year 2007.
"The discovery of a virus like the one that circulated in Georgia does not, therefore, rule out the possibility that its source lies in a high-security laboratory," said the agriculture department.
Laboratory Connection Examined
The 'Georgia 2007' viral strain is a 'reference' pathogen commonly employed in experimental infections in secure labs to study the virus or to evaluate the efficacy of vaccines, which are presently under development. The report suggests that the outbreak might not have started in animals or animal products from any of the nations where the infection is currently active.
Government Response and Review
In response, Salvador Illa announced he had ordered the Catalan agrifood research institute to carry out an audit of five facilities that work with the ASF virus within a 20-kilometer distance of the outbreak site.
"We are not excluding any possibilities when it comes to the origin of the incident of this disease, but nor are we confirming any," he said. "Every theory are on the table. Above all, we need to know what happened."
Current Containment Measures
The agriculture ministry have reported thirteen infections of the virus – all of them in deceased wild boar found within six kilometers of the initial focus. They have said the corpses of an additional 37 animals discovered in the zone have been analysed, with all showing no infection for swine fever. Experts sent to the thirty-nine pig farms within the 20km radius have detected no sign of the illness there. More than 100 personnel from the country's emergency response forces have also been deployed to the region to work alongside police officers and forestry agents.
Global Context of ASF
Long endemic to the African continent, ASF is not dangerous to humans but often deadly to pigs. In the year 2018, the disease turned up in China, which is home to about 50% of the world’s pigs. By 2019, there were fears that up to one hundred million animals had been lost. Two years later, the virus was confirmed to be in the Federal Republic of Germany, home to one of the EU’s largest pig farming industries.
Spain's Pivotal Role in Meat Production
Spain, which is the European Union's largest producer of pig meat, exported pig meat products worth €5.1bn to other EU countries in the previous year, and nearly 3.7 billion euros of pig-based goods to markets outside the bloc. National data show that the country slaughtered 58 million pigs in the year 2021 – an increase of 40% from a ten years prior.
