High-security lab NOT to blame for Spain’s African swine fever outbreak as infected wild boar numbers climb
INVESTIGATORS probing the cause of Spain’s African swine fever outbreak say the variant detected in wild boars in Catalunya is different to that used at a nearby high-security laboratory.
Previously, officials speculated that the disease may have leaked from one of five research facilities located within 20km of Bellaterra, a Catalan municipality on the outskirts of Barcelona where the virus was first detected.
The line of enquiry developed after a report by Spain’s agriculture ministry said the strain of African swine fever detected in wild boars in Catalunya was similar to one detected in Georgia in the 2000s – and not like other variants circulating in the EU.
“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.
Attention in particular turned to one lab – the IRTA-CReSA research centre – which was using strains of the disease in experimental studies and vaccine development.
Last month, officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra and Guardia Civil raided the health research laboratory following a court-issued search warrant, with the facility under investigation for environmental crimes related to the outbreak.
But that theory has all but evaporated into thin air after Barcelona’s Institute for Biomedical Research said the variant detected in wild boars roaming the Catalan countryside does not match the strain used by researchers at the lab.
The IRB found that the DNA does not match and believe the virus may be a new, less virulent variant created through accumulated mutations.
Speaking at a press conference last week, IRB professor Toni Gabaldon said the outbreak’s precise origin may never be known definitively.
So far, the agriculture ministry has confirmed 47 cases of the virus, all found in dead boars located nearby to where the disease was first detected in late November.
African swine fever is harmless to humans but potentially fatal to pigs, with the agriculture ministry warning that a spread into domestic herds used to produce pork would be catastrophic for the industry.
Spain is the world’s third-largest exporter of pork and roughly a third of its markets have imposed some form of restriction amid fears that the virus could spread.
The pork export industry is worth around €8.8 billion a year.
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