Emergency declared in Catalonia due to African swine fever

Madrid. The concern is maximum, hence the Catalan government, chaired by the socialist Salvador Illa, decided to declare “an emergency” in the region in the face of the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), in order to stop the virus as soon as possible and prevent its spread to other regions, which would increase the risk of bankruptcy for a vital sector for the Spanish economy.

The forecasts of the winners of Catalonia are that the health crisis will cause losses of up to 24 million euros (500 million pesos) per week, partly also due to the veto of some countries on pork exports from the region or Spain, including the most important markets such as Mexico, the United States, China, Japan and Korea.

The ASF outbreak, one of the most virulent and uncurable diseases affecting pigs, had its origin in a mountainous area on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​Collserola, where 13 wild boars have so far been found dead with the disease. Given the seriousness of the situation, especially due to the risk of mass contagion, it was decided to deploy the Spanish army in the area to establish controls and search the perimeter for more infected or dead animals. So far only 13 wild boars have been located, but new findings are not ruled out, at least in the six kilometers around that were established as “ground zero” of the epidemic.

Faced with this situation, which puts the Spanish pig sector at risk, which represents around 9 percent of the total livestock activity in the country and has an annual turnover of 25 billion euros, the Catalan government decided to declare an “emergency”, which will allow it to act quickly and without administrative restrictions to avoid mass contagion or the spread to other regions. In addition, the declaration allows for the “urgent” processing of all contracts for services, supplies and specific works that aim to “contain, prevent or alleviate the effects and contagion of ASF or possible mutations or variants of the virus.”

So far, 11,000 hectares have been searched, half on foot, 30 percent with drones and 20 percent with dogs, in the search for more animals killed by ASF, as explained at a press conference by the Catalan Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, who acknowledged that although at the moment the disease has not jumped to any farm, the livestock sector is concerned about the economic losses due to the drop in price in the markets. In addition, it was announced that livestock from another 16 nearby farms, but outside the 20-kilometer surveillance perimeter, will be analyzed, adding to the 39 livestock farms that have already been analyzed without finding any positive among their specimens. In any case, both the Generalitat and the ranchers have already set the calendar for the slaughter of 30,000 “healthy” pigs as a “prevention measure” and which will be done in stages.