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National authorities investigating the ongoing ASF outbreak in Catalonia are now exploring the possibility that the virus may have originated from a research facility. Their focus has narrowed to several nearby facilities as potential sources.

Outbreak Details and Industry Concerns

A total of thirteen cases of the virus have been identified in wild boars in the countryside outside the Catalan capital beginning on 28 November. This has prompted the country – the European Union's biggest exporter of pig products – to scramble to control the outbreak before it escalates into a serious risk to the country's multi-billion euro pig meat export industry.

Shifting Investigative Focus

At first, local authorities suspected the outbreak may have begun after a boar consumed contaminated food brought in from abroad – possibly a discarded food item from a truck driver.

However, the national agriculture ministry has initiated a different investigation after determining that the variant of the virus found in the dead boars in the region is different from the one known to be present in other EU member states. Investigative findings suggest the identified virus is rather akin to one found in Georgia in 2007.

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

Laboratory Link Examined

The 'Georgia-2007' viral strain is a 'standard' virus frequently used in scientific studies in secure labs to study the virus or to evaluate the efficacy of vaccines, which are presently being developed. The report implies that the outbreak might not have started in livestock or animal products from any of the countries where the infection is currently active.

Government Actions and Audit

In response, Salvador Illa stated he had instructed the regional research body to conduct an audit of five laboratories that handle the African swine fever virus within a 20-kilometer distance of the affected area.

"The regional government are not excluding any scenarios when it comes to the source of the incident of this disease, but nor are we confirming any," the official stated. "Every theory remain on the table. Above all, we need to know the facts."

Latest Containment Measures

The authorities have confirmed thirteen infections of the disease – each one in deceased feral pigs found within six kilometers of the initial focus. They have said the remains of 37 more wild animals discovered in the zone have been analysed, with all testing negative for the virus. Experts dispatched to the thirty-nine pig farms within the surrounding zone have found no sign of the disease there. More than one hundred members from the country's emergency response forces have also been deployed to the area to work alongside police officers and forestry agents.

Global Context of ASF

Long native to Africa, African swine fever is not dangerous to humans but frequently fatal to pigs. In 2018, the virus turned up in the People's Republic of China, which is home to about half of the world’s pig population. By 2019, there were concerns that as many as one hundred million pigs had been lost. Two years later, the pathogen was detected to be in Germany, home to one of the EU’s biggest pig farming industries.

The Country's Crucial Position in Meat Production

Spain, which is the European Union's biggest pork producer, sold pork products worth 5.1 billion euros to other European nations last year, and almost 3.7 billion euros of pig-based goods to markets outside the bloc. National data indicate that the country processed fifty-eight million pigs in 2021 – an increase of forty percent from a ten years prior.