Spain probes whether swine fever outbreak was caused by lab leak

The Catalonia regional government said on Friday it would investigate a research centre outside Barcelona after Spain's Agriculture Ministry said a recent swine fever outbreak could have been caused by a laboratory leak.



Spain, the European Union's top pork producer, is trying to reassure trading partners after 13 wild boars tested positive for the virus in hills outside the city. The disease is harmless to humans but can be deadly for pigs and wild boars.



Genome sequencing by a Madrid lab showed the strain was “very similar” to one first detected in Georgia in 2007 and now widely used in research and vaccine development, the ministry said. Other cases in Europe belong to a different genetic group.



"The discovery of a virus similar to the one that circulated in Georgia therefore does not rule out the possibility that its origin may lie in a biological containment facility," the Agriculture Ministry said.