Spain not ruling out lab leak as cause of swine fever outbreak

In this file photo, pigs roam in a shed. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

MADRID - Spain’s government said Friday it had not ruled out an accidental laboratory leak as the cause of an outbreak of African swine fever that has rocked the country’s lucrative pork industry.

Spain has deployed dozens of soldiers to help track and contain an outbreak of the fever in the northeastern Catalonia region, where 13 cases have been detected since November 28.

The agriculture ministry said in a statement that it had ordered a special inquiry into the source of the virus, which does not affect humans but is highly contagious and lethal for pigs.

A Madrid laboratory that studied the virus concluded that its genetic group was “very similar” to a viral strain found in Georgia in 2007 -- frequently used in labs for testing vaccines, the ministry said.

The ministry said the Georgia link suggested the Catalonia outbreak had not been caused by contaminated products from areas of Europe where the disease is already spreading.

It added that the finding “does not rule out the possibility that it originated from a biological containment facility”.

One lab that has tested African swine fever is based near the containment zone in Catalonia, where two dead boars carrying the fever were found.

Experts had speculated that the Spanish outbreak could have come from a contaminated sausage eaten by a wild boar.

Oscar Ordeig, an official in charge of agriculture for the Catalonia regional government, said the theory of a lab leak could not be confirmed and that there was “information missing”.