Ordeig, regarding the IRTA audit for swine fever: "Everything points to the facilities and protocols being fine."

BarcelonaInitial reports from the audit at the IRTA-CReSA Animal Health Research Center, aimed at determining whether African swine fever (ASF) originated in one of its laboratories, indicate that the facilities and protocols "are in good order" and that everything functioned as it should. This was explained on Friday by the Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, following Thursday's findings. A joint operation by the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guardia Civil will search these laboratories within the framework of the investigation to determine the origin of the infections. "Pending some additional documentation that we still need, everything indicates that the facilities are fine, the protocols are correct, and everything has been done properly, according to the experts' audit," the regional minister assured.

The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, also stated this, defending the center's workers. "There is no evidence to suggest that things were not done correctly," he said during the presentation of the neighborhood plan. Illa offered the Catalan government's "full cooperation" with all the investigations being carried out to try to clarify the origin of the outbreakOne of these is the report from the European Commission's committee of experts, which has already concluded that "no obvious pathway has been identified" by which the virus could have escaped from the IRTA-CReSA facilities. Furthermore, it states that the facilities are adequate and that the professionals perform their work well. However, the report does not rule out the possibility that the virus escaped from this laboratory, but rather that they have found "no indication" or "any evidence" to prove it. Thus, the European experts who visited the center's facilities this December after the outbreak have also been unable to explain how the virus arrived in Catalonia. In the report, they maintain that the laboratory has demonstrated "a high level of technical competence and professionalism" and that the biosafety measures are "adequate." "The center is aware of the risks and has clear procedures for identifying and managing critical points," the report emphasizes. It also states that there are "comprehensive" records of the virus's use, animal experiments, and incidents.

In a meeting with journalists, however, the Secretary General of Agriculture, Cristina Massot, explained that they must wait for the results of the sequencing currently underway to determine whether or not the strain found in wild boar matches any of those used for experimentation at the center. Several sequencing tests are being conducted to identify the genetic mutations behind the virus, which acts as a kind of unique identifier, allowing it to be compared with other circulating strains. One of these tests is being carried out by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) at the request of the Government and began earlier this week, as did the one being conducted by the European reference laboratory in Madrid. Experts consulted by ARA anticipate that the results will be available next week. For the moment, the Department of Agriculture has declined to specify any timeline.

Outbreak Containment

Ordeig congratulated the teams working to contain the outbreak. "We've done the impossible: we've managed to keep the outbreak within that initial 6-kilometer radius," he said. The regional minister also quantified the data collected so far: a total of 360 wild boars have been captured, of which 27 tested positive. "This is 7% of the total, for reference," he explained. Furthermore, captures and traps will continue "where the technicians indicate," the regional minister assured.

The latest positive case was confirmed this Friday afternoon by the Central Veterinary Laboratory of Algete, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. It involves a wild boar exhibiting symptoms, which was killed in the high-risk area within a six-kilometer radius of the first case, but this time within the municipality of Sant Cugat del Vallès and not in Cerdanyola del Vallès as in the previous cases. This indicates a new outbreak, necessitating a change in the municipalities included in the 20-kilometer radius infection zone: Begues and Gavà, from the Baix Llobregat region, and Olesa de Bonesvalls and Subirats, from the Alt Penedès region, have been added.

Guarantee exports

The Catalan government has also explained that Japan has agreed to import Spanish pork stored in cold storage facilities since before the start of the African swine fever outbreak, meaning it was stored before October 29th. Ordeig stated that this is an important step because it guarantees that all this meat "can be exported without any problems." The regional minister also expressed hope regarding the possibilities opened up by the agreement signed by France and Canada with Japan to continue receiving meat from these countries even in cases of outbreaks in parts of their territories. Specifically, the Catalan government highlights that Japan has accepted the sanitary zoning of these countries to preserve trade flows and that the Ministry of Agriculture is currently in negotiations along the same lines. Furthermore, although Catalonia declared the outbreak of contagious nodular dermatosis, which affects cattle, over this week, Ordeig expressed concern about the increase in cases of this disease in France. The regional minister, who specified that compensation for the affected livestock farmers would be paid "before the end of the year," announced that controls on the entry of animals from France would be reinforced with "additional measures." "We import a lot of calves from this country, and we need to be very vigilant," the minister said.