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National authorities investigating the recent African swine fever incident in Catalonia are now considering the possibility that the virus could have escaped from a research facility. Their focus has shifted to five nearby labs as potential sources.

Outbreak Details and Economic Stakes

Thirteen cases of the virus have been confirmed in wild boars in the countryside outside Barcelona since 28 November. This has prompted Spain – the European Union's largest pork exporter – to rush to contain the outbreak before it escalates into a serious risk to the country's multi-billion euro pork export sector.

Shifting Investigative Focus

Initially, local officials suspected the disease started after a boar consumed contaminated meat products imported from abroad – perhaps a thrown away food item from a haulier.

However, the Spanish agriculture ministry has initiated a different line of inquiry after concluding that the variant of the pathogen found in the dead boars in Catalonia is different from the one known to be circulating in other European countries. Investigative findings suggest the strain in question is instead akin to one found in Georgia in 2007.

"The discovery of a virus similar to the one that was present in that country does not, therefore, rule out the chance that its origin is a high-security laboratory," stated the agriculture department.

Laboratory Link Examined

The 'Georgia-2007' virus strain is a 'standard' pathogen commonly used in scientific studies in containment facilities to study the virus or to test the efficacy of treatments, which are presently under development. The report suggests that the outbreak might not have started in animals or meat products from any of the countries where the infection is currently active.

Government Response and Review

In reaction, the regional president of Catalonia stated he had instructed the Catalan agrifood research institute to conduct an inspection of five laboratories that work with the African swine fever virus within a 20-kilometer radius of the affected area.

"The regional government are not excluding any possibilities when it comes to the source of the incident of this disease, but neither is it confirming any," he said. "All hypotheses are open. Above all, we need to understand what happened."

Latest Containment Efforts

The agriculture ministry have confirmed 13 cases of the disease – all of them in deceased feral pigs found within 6km of the first detection site. Officials added the corpses of an additional 37 wild animals discovered in the area have been analysed, with every one testing negative for swine fever. Experts dispatched to the 39 pig farms within the 20km radius have found no sign of the illness there. Over one hundred personnel from the nation's military emergencies unit have also been deployed to the area to assist police officers and wildlife rangers.

Worldwide Context of African Swine Fever

Long endemic to the African continent, African swine fever is not dangerous to people but often deadly to pigs. In 2018, the virus turned up in China, which is has about half of the world’s pig population. By 2019, there were fears that up to 100 million pigs had been culled or died. Two years later, the pathogen was detected to be in Germany, home to one of the EU’s biggest swine herds.

The Country's Crucial Position in Pork Exports

Spain, which is the EU’s largest pork producer, sold pork products worth 5.1 billion euros to other EU countries in the previous year, and nearly 3.7 billion euros of pig-based goods to markets outside the bloc. National statistics show that the country processed fifty-eight million pigs in 2021 – an increase of 40% from a decade earlier.