Spain races to contain African swine fever outbreak near Barcelona

According to reporting from The Guardian, Spanish authorities have launched a large emergency operation outside Barcelona after African swine fever was detected in wild boar for the first time in nearly 30 years.

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The Guardian reports that a 6km exclusion zone has been established around Bellaterra, where two dead boars recently tested positive for ASF. Specialists are also analysing eight further suspected cases.

Catalonia’s agriculture minister, Òscar Ordeig, said the virus may have entered the area through contaminated meat consumed by a wild boar.

“The probability that the origin was cold meat, a sandwich or a contaminated product … is high,” he told local radio, stressing that this remains a hypothesis.

Ordeig said 117 personnel from Spain’s military emergencies unit have been deployed to disinfect affected areas, remove carcasses and monitor the zone using drones.

Public warnings

Authorities have urged residents not to feed wild boar and to contact emergency services if they encounter dead animals.

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Catalonia’s regional president, Salvador Illa, told The Guardian that the response had been immediate and “with full transparency”, adding: “We’re working … to stop the outbreak, to help and protect the sector.”

Spain’s agriculture minister, Luis Planas, held talks with pork industry representatives and said the government was “putting into effect all its mechanisms to contain” the spread and safeguard exports.

Export pressures

Spain is the EU’s largest pork producer, exporting more than €8.8bn in pig-meat products annually. The Guardian reports that China — a key market representing almost 42% of Spain’s third-country exports — has temporarily halted imports from Barcelona province but continues to accept meat from other regions.

Managing a long-known threat

African swine fever poses no risk to humans but is often fatal to pigs. The Guardian notes that the virus has caused massive losses in countries such as China and Germany and can spread through infected animals, ticks and contaminated meat products.

Because ASF can survive for months in processed meat and years in frozen carcasses, officials remain particularly concerned about cross-border transmission via food items.