,Spanish police searched a laboratory near Barcelona on Thursday in an investigation into the source of an African swine fever outbreak that has sparked jitters for Europe’s top pork producer.
A leak of the virus – which is harmless for humans but devastating for pigs – is one of the theories for the origin of Spain’s first such outbreak since 1994.
All 26 cases detected so far have been among wild boars in the same radius of a wooded area northwest of Barcelona.
The Civil Guard and the northeastern Catalonia region’s police force said in separate statements that they were entering and searching the premises of the IRTA-CReSA animal laboratory, close to where the first contaminated dead boars were found in November.
The proceedings had been ordered by a court that had declared them “secret”, the forces added.
The centre belongs to a public company attached to the Catalan regional government and has biosecurity facilities at levels two and three on a scale of four.
The outbreak’s cause remains unclear. Catalan leader Salvador Illa told the regional parliament on Wednesday that no information was “conclusive”, including theories of a laboratory leak.
Although the disease has not spread to domestic pig farms, with hundreds of officials working to contain it, the cases have disrupted exports from Spain, the world’s third-largest producer of pork and its derivatives.
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