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National officials investigating the recent African swine fever incident in Catalonia are now considering the chance that the virus could have originated from a scientific laboratory. Attention has shifted to several local labs as possible points of origin.

Confirmed Cases and Economic Concerns

Thirteen infections 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 EU’s biggest pork exporter – to scramble to control the situation before it becomes a serious risk to the nation's multi-billion euro pig meat export industry.

Evolving Investigative Focus

Initially, regional officials suspected the disease may have begun after a boar consumed infected food imported from outside Spain – possibly a thrown away meat sandwich from a truck driver.

However, the national agriculture ministry has opened a different investigation after concluding that the variant of the pathogen found in the deceased animals in Catalonia is not the same as the one reported to be present in other EU member states. Investigative findings indicate the strain in question is instead akin to one found in Georgia in the year 2007.

"This finding of a virus like the one that was present in Georgia does not, therefore, rule out the chance that its source is a high-security facility," said the ministry.

Laboratory Connection Examined

The 'Georgia 2007' virus strain is a 'reference' pathogen frequently used in experimental infections in secure labs to research the virus or to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments, 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.

Official Actions and Review

In response, Salvador Illa announced he had ordered the regional research body to carry out an inspection of several facilities that work with the ASF virus within a 20-kilometer radius of the outbreak site.

"The regional government are not excluding any possibilities when it comes to the source of the outbreak of this disease, but neither is it confirming any," he said. "All hypotheses are on the table. First and foremost, we need to know what happened."

Current Containment Efforts

The authorities have confirmed thirteen infections of the virus – all of them in deceased wild boar located within 6km of the initial focus. Officials added the corpses of an additional 37 wild animals discovered in the area have been tested, with every one testing negative for swine fever. Experts dispatched to the thirty-nine pig farms within the surrounding zone have found no trace of the illness there. More than 100 personnel from the nation's military emergencies unit have also been deployed to the region to assist police officers and forestry agents.

Global Background of ASF

For a long time endemic to Africa, African swine fever is not dangerous to people but frequently fatal to swine. In the year 2018, the virus turned up in the People's Republic of China, which is has about half of the global pig population. By the following year, there were fears that as many as 100 million animals had been lost. Subsequently, the virus was confirmed to be in the Federal Republic of Germany, a country with one of the EU’s largest swine herds.

Spain's Crucial Role in Pork Production

The nation, which is the European Union's largest pork producer, exported pig meat products worth 5.1 billion euros to other European nations in the previous year, and almost €3.7bn of pork products to markets outside the bloc. Official data show that Spain processed fifty-eight million swine in 2021 – an increase of forty percent from a decade earlier.