Farmers in Catalonia will kill 30,000 healthy pigs in the area affected by African swine fever.
The decision was taken at a meeting between authorities and businesses in the autonomous region. Animals in the quarantine zone will begin to be taken to slaughterhouses. Their meat will be used for internal consumption, the Association of Young Farmers and Livestock Breeders of Catalonia said. The organization said the measure, among other things, aims to calm a sector that is key to the economy due to its significant impact on income. Since the pigs are healthy, they said, the meat is safe to eat.
The decision comes after 15 infected animals have been found since the start of the African swine fever outbreak in Catalonia. This has led to the closure of some markets and a drop in the price of pork per kilogram to 1.20 euros. The Catalan government has tried to reassure the sector by stressing that the majority of the dead pigs found were not infected.
In this context, it has become clear that the Civil Guard and the Catalan police will investigate the origin of the virus after a report indicated the possibility that the strain originated in a laboratory. The document, prepared by the Animal Health Research Center in Madrid, states that the strain may not have originated in animals or animal products from any of the countries where the infection is currently present. The discovery has put an animal health laboratory located on the campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Bellaterra in the spotlight. It is only one kilometer from the place where the first dead wild boars appeared.