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Spanish officials probing the recent African swine fever outbreak in Catalonia are now considering the chance that the disease could have originated from a scientific laboratory. Attention has narrowed to five nearby labs as potential sources.

Outbreak Details and Economic Concerns

A total of thirteen cases of the virus have been identified in wild boars in the countryside outside the Catalan capital since 28 November. This has led Spain – the European Union's largest exporter of pig products – to rush to control the situation before it escalates into a significant threat to the country's €8.8bn-a-year pork export sector.

Evolving Investigative Focus

At first, local officials suspected the disease may have begun after a wild boar ate contaminated food brought in from outside Spain – perhaps a discarded food item from a haulier.

However, the Spanish ministry of agriculture has initiated a different line of inquiry after concluding that the strain of the pathogen detected in the deceased boars in Catalonia is different from the one reported to be circulating in other European countries. Investigative findings indicate the identified virus is rather similar to one detected in the country of Georgia in 2007.

"This finding of a strain similar to the one that was present in Georgia does not, therefore, exclude the possibility that its source is a high-security laboratory," said the agriculture department.

Laboratory Connection Explored

The 'Georgia 2007' virus strain is a 'reference' pathogen commonly used in experimental infections in secure labs to research the disease or to test the effectiveness of treatments, which are presently under development. The analysis implies that the outbreak may not have started in animals or animal products from any of the nations where the infection is currently present.

Government Actions and Review

In reaction, the regional president of Catalonia announced he had ordered the Catalan agrifood research institute to conduct an audit of five facilities that handle the ASF pathogen within a 20km radius of the affected area.

"The regional government are not excluding any possibilities when it comes to the origin of the outbreak of this disease, but neither is it confirming any," he said. "Every theory remain on the table. First and foremost, we need to know the facts."

Current Containment Measures

The agriculture ministry have reported 13 cases of the disease – all of them in deceased feral pigs located within six kilometers of the first detection site. Officials added the corpses of 37 more animals discovered in the area have been tested, with all testing negative for the virus. Specialists sent to the 39 pig farms within the surrounding zone have found no sign of the illness there. More than 100 members from the country's military emergencies unit have additionally been deployed to the region to assist law enforcement and forestry agents.

Worldwide Background of African Swine Fever

Long native to Africa, ASF is harmless to humans but often deadly to swine. In the year 2018, the virus turned up in China, which is home to about half of the world’s pigs. By 2019, there were fears that as many as 100 million pigs had been culled or died. Subsequently, the pathogen was confirmed to be in Germany, a country with one of the European Union's largest pig farming industries.

Spain's Crucial Position in Pork Production

The nation, which is the European Union's biggest producer of pig meat, sold pig meat products worth €5.1bn to other European nations last year, and nearly €3.7bn of pig-based goods to destinations outside the bloc. Official data indicate that the country slaughtered 58 million pigs in 2021 – an rise of forty percent from a ten years prior.