Spain investigates leak of "laboratory" swine fever strain in Catalonia
Authorities say the strain of the virus that has killed wild boars in Catalonia is one often used for experiments in secure facilities.
Spanish authorities investigating the African swine fever outbreak in Catalonia are exploring the possibility that the disease may have leaked from a research facility and are focusing on five nearby laboratories as potential sources.
Thirteen cases of the fever have been confirmed in wild boars in the countryside outside Barcelona since November 28, prompting Spain to act quickly to contain the outbreak before it poses a serious threat to its pork export industry, which is worth €8.8bn (£7.7bn) a year.
The regional authorities initially believed the disease may have started circulating after a wild boar consumed contaminated food that had been brought in from outside Spain, potentially in the form of a meat sandwich discarded by a haulier.
However, Spain’s agriculture ministry has opened a new line of inquiry after determining that the strain of the virus found in the dead boars in Catalonia is not the same as the one reported to be circulating in other EU member states. According to one report, the strain in question is more similar to one detected in Georgia in 2007.
“The discovery of a virus similar to the one that circulated in Georgia does not, therefore, rule out the possibility that its origin lies in a biological containment facility,” the ministry said on Friday.
“The ‘Georgia 2007’ virus strain is a ‘reference’ virus frequently used in experimental infections in containment facilities to study the virus or to assess the effectiveness of vaccines currently being developed. The report suggests that the virus may not have originated in animals or animal products from any of the countries where the infection is currently present.”
Catalonia’s regional president, Salvador Illa, said on Saturday that he had instructed the Catalan agrifood research institute to conduct an audit of five facilities within 20km (12 miles) of the outbreak site that work with the African swine fever virus.
“The regional government isn’t ruling out any possibilities when it comes to the origin of the outbreak of African swine fever, but neither is it confirming any,” he said. “All hypotheses remain open. First and foremost, we need to know what happened.”
The agriculture ministry has confirmed 13 cases of the virus – all in dead wild boar found within 6km of the initial outbreak. It reported that the corpses of 37 more wild animals found in the zone had been analyzed, and all had tested negative for swine fever.
Experts dispatched to the 39 pig farms within a 20km radius of the affected area have found no trace of the illness in animals there. More than 100 personnel from Spain’s military emergencies unit have also been deployed to the area to work alongside police and wildlife rangers.
Long endemic to Africa, African swine fever is harmless to humans but often fatal to pigs. In 2018, the virus appeared in China, which houses about half of the world’s pigs. By 2019, there were concerns that as many as 100 million pigs had been lost. Two years later, the virus was confirmed in Germany, home to one of the EU’s largest swine herds.
Spain, the EU’s largest pork producer, exported pig meat products worth €5.1bn to other EU countries last year, and almost €3.7bn of pork products to markets outside the EU. Spain slaughtered 58 million pigs in 2021, up 40% from a decade earlier.
Head of Investigations
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