Up to five laboratories will be probed in Spain following an outbreak of African swine fever among wild boars.
Catalonia ordered a full audit of every facility working with the virus within a 20km radius of the affected pig population.
Regional president Salvador Illa announced the move on Saturday from the emergency command centre in Santa Perpetua de Mogoda (Barcelona), where efforts to contain the outbreak are being coordinated.
Illa said that no hypothesis is off the table and that the investigation must proceed ‘with maximum rigour and transparency’.
According to Illa, fewer than five facilities in the area handle the virus. The Generalitat has tasked the regional agri-food research institute, IRTA, with assembling a panel of specialists to examine the laboratories’ installations and review their protocols.
Illa added that he would ‘ideally’ like representatives from national institutions to take part as well.
The announcement follows an assessment by Spain’s national ASF reference laboratory, CISA-INIA in Valdeolmos (Madrid), which recently informed the Ministry of Agriculture that a laboratory connection to the outbreak remains a plausible line of inquiry.
For now, officials say the outbreak remains geographically contained. None of the 55 pig farms located within the security perimeter, home to more than 80,000 animals, have tested positive.
To date, 13 cases have been confirmed, while more than 70 suspected samples have returned negative results.
Illa stressed that pork produced inside the perimeter will shortly enter the Spanish market and insisted there is ‘no risk whatsoever’ to human health from consuming it.
He also thanked field teams for their rapid response and urged the public to comply with restrictions on accessing nearby forests and natural areas.
‘Our prevention, detection and response systems are operating at an exceptionally high level,’ he said.
