Lab link to Spain’s ASF outbreak all-but ruled out as cases grow

The strain of African swine fever found in wild boar in Spain’s Catalonia region does not match strains being worked on in a nearby laboratory, provisional investigations show.

A further 18 wild boar had been confirmed with the disease, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 47. All were found close to the original cases identified near Cerdanyola, just outside Barcelona, in late November, Catalonia’s agriculture minister Òscar Ordeig said on Monday.

Soon after the initial cases were confirmed, Spain’s agriculture ministry said the strain detected in the wild boar was similar to one detected in Georgia in the 2000s – and not linked to other variants circulating in the EU. It said it could, therefore, ‘not rule out the possibility that its origin lies in a biological containment facility’.

This prompted investigations into the origin thst focused on a government laboratory situated close to the outbreaks, the IRTA-CReSA research centre, which was using strains of the disease in experimental studies and vaccine development.

No match

However, following tests, Barcelona’s Institute for Biomedical Research has revealed that the variant detected in wild boars does not match the strain used by researchers at the lab.

After analysing 17 samples, the institute provisionally ruled out the link, suggesting, instead, that the virus may represent a new, less virulent variant, Catalan News reports.

The results are not conclusive, however, and the Catalan government has sent the results to Spain’s agriculture ministry for an official report.

IRB professor Toni Gabaldón said he would ‘expect the same results’ to emerge but urged caution in reaching a final conclusion until the official report from Spain’s designated European reference laboratory, based in Madrid, is issued. He added that the outbreak’s precise origin may never be definitively known.

In his press conference this week, Minister Ordeig said ASF had been ruled out on 55 farms within the 6km restricted zone. He also announced that the first meeting of the Wild Boar Board, which is aiming to develop a strategy to contain Spain’s wild boar population, will be held this Wednesday.