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National authorities probing the ongoing African swine fever incident in Catalonia are now exploring the chance that the disease could have originated from a research facility. Attention has narrowed to several nearby facilities as possible sources.

Outbreak Details and Economic Stakes

A total of thirteen cases of the fever have been confirmed in feral pigs in the countryside outside the Catalan capital beginning on 28 November. This has prompted the country – the EU’s largest pork exporter – to scramble to contain the outbreak before it escalates into a significant risk to the country's €8.8bn-a-year pig meat export sector.

Shifting Investigative Focus

Initially, local officials believed the outbreak may have begun after a wild boar consumed infected food imported from outside Spain – possibly a thrown away meat sandwich from a truck driver.

However, the national ministry of agriculture has opened a different investigation after concluding that the variant of the virus found in the dead boars in Catalonia is different from the one known to be circulating in other European countries. According to a report indicate the strain in question is rather akin to one found in Georgia in 2007.

"This finding of a strain like the one that was present in Georgia does not, therefore, exclude the chance that its origin is a high-security facility," stated the agriculture department.

Laboratory Connection Examined

The 'Georgia-2007' viral strain is a 'reference' virus frequently employed in experimental infections in containment facilities to study the virus or to evaluate the efficacy of treatments, which are currently being developed. The analysis suggests that the virus may not have started in livestock or animal products from any of the countries where the infection is currently present.

Government Actions and Audit

In response, the regional president of Catalonia stated he had instructed the Catalan agrifood research institute to carry out an audit of several laboratories that work with the African swine fever virus within a 20km radius of the outbreak site.

"The regional government isn’t ruling out any possibilities when it comes to the origin of the outbreak of this disease, but nor are we confirming any," the official stated. "All hypotheses remain open. First and foremost, we need to know what happened."

Current Containment Efforts

The authorities have confirmed 13 cases of the disease – all of them in dead feral pigs located within six kilometers of the first detection site. They have said the remains of an additional 37 wild animals found in the area have been tested, with every one testing negative for the virus. Experts sent to the 39 pig farms within the 20km radius have found no trace of the illness on those farms. More than one hundred personnel from the nation's military emergencies unit have also been deployed to the region to assist police officers and forestry agents.

Worldwide Context of ASF

For a long time endemic to the African continent, ASF is not dangerous to humans but frequently deadly to pigs. In 2018, the virus emerged in China, which is home to about half of the global pigs. By 2019, there were concerns that as many as one hundred million pigs had been culled or died. Two years later, the pathogen was detected to be in Germany, a country with one of the European Union's largest pig farming industries.

Spain's Pivotal Role in Pork Exports

Spain, which is the EU’s largest producer of pig meat, sold pork products worth €5.1bn to other European nations last year, and almost 3.7 billion euros of pork products to markets outside the bloc. National data show that Spain processed fifty-eight million swine in the year 2021 – an increase of 40% from a ten years prior.