Spain

Spain Detects First Swine Fever Cases Outside Initial Barcelona Outbreak Zone

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:44:00 GMT

Two African swine fever (ASF) cases have been detected in Spain among wild boar for the first time outside an original outbreak area near Barcelona, prompting additional restrictions on the movement of people and livestock, regional authorities in Catalonia said on Friday.

The new cases were found near the western towns of El Papiol and Molins de Rei in Barcelona’s metropolitan area, where there are no pork farms, officials said.

ASF is not harmful to humans but spreads rapidly among pigs and wild boar. Outbreaks often prompt countries to restrict their pork imports from countries or regions with active cases.

Spain is the European Union’s leading pork producer, accounting for a quarter of the bloc’s output and with annual exports worth about 3.5 billion euros ($4.2 billion).

The initial outbreak, Spain’s first since 1994, took place in the Collserola hills to the north of Barcelona, with no cases reported on farms.

“It was an expected outcome that at some point one of the boar would move to the south,” the head of the Catalan agriculture department, Oscar Ordeig, told reporters at a media briefing.

He added that it being a secondary outbreak meant the new measures - including disinfection, collection and management of boar carcasses, drone-based searches and an estimation of wild boar population densities in the infected area - would only affect the two towns.

In total, 155 infected pigs have been found in the Barcelona area, with 13 new cases detected in recent days, he said.

($1 = 0.8437 euros)
(Reporting by Joan Faus and David Latona; Editing by David Holmes)

Spain's African Swine Fever Cases are on the Rise

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 21:00:01 GMT

Spain has recorded 18 more cases of the deadly African swine fever (ASF) virus in Catalonia as authorities bring in drones and helicopters to help contain the outbreak.

On Monday, officials reported 18 additional wild boar deaths, bringing the tally up to almost 50. According to The Independent , officials say the rise was due to wider testing in hard-to-reach areas, explored by air over the holidays. Officials emphasized that this has been an “accumulation” of cases reported, and not a “sudden” spike.

Spain ramped up containment efforts in December, bringing in dogs and military personnel to help track the disease. More than 620 boars have been analyzed in recent weeks, with around 8% testing positive for the virus, the article said.

Investigations into the origin of the ASF strain had focused on a government laboratory situated close to the outbreaks, the IRTA-CReSA research centre, which was using strains of the disease in experimental studies and vaccine development, Pig World reports.

The investigation was sparked after a report by Spain’s agriculture ministry said the strain detected in the wild boar was similar to one detected in Georgia in the 2000s – and not linked to other variants circulating in the EU. It could, therefore, ‘not rule out the possibility that its origin lies in a biological containment facility.’

However, Barcelona’s Institute for Biomedical Research has announced that after testing the variant detected in wild boars, it does not match the strain used by researchers at the lab. The laboratory received 19 samples and, after analyzing 17, it provisionally ruled out the link, suggesting, instead, that the virus may represent a new, less virulent variant, Catalan News reports.

The Catalan government has sent the results to Spain’s agriculture ministry for an official report. According to local news sources, none of the analyzed samples matched the virus from the first two wild boar found dead in Cerdanyola or any of the roughly 800 ASF variants circulating worldwide. The closest resemblance is to the Georgian strain, from which it differs by 27 mutations.

Based on these findings, the IRB believes the virus is a newly evolved, low-virulence variant created through accumulated mutations.

Catalonia’s agriculture minister Òscar Ordeig announced that the first meeting of the Wild Boar Board, which is aiming to develop a strategy to contain Spain’s wild boar population, will be held Jan. 7.

Spanish Police Search Laboratory in African Swine Fever Probe

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 19:38:56 GMT

Spanish police searched a state-funded laboratory near Barcelona on Thursday as part of an investigation into the origin of the African swine fever outbreak in the same area, regional police said.

The court-ordered move follows concerns raised this month that the outbreak detected in wild boars could have been caused by a laboratory leak. Genome sequencing showed the strain is similar to that used in research and vaccine development and different from other cases in Europe.

African swine fever is harmless to humans but can be fatal to pigs and wild boars, and spreads rapidly.

Spain is the European Union’s largest pork producer, accounting for about a quarter of the bloc’s output, and the outbreak has threatened exports, prompting authorities to impose movement restrictions and step up efforts to reassure trading partners.

Police said the search at the Centre for Research in Animal Health (Cresa) was ordered by a local investigating judge and forms part of preliminary proceedings that have been declared secret.

The centre did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cresa has told the news verification website Maldita.es it had found no evidence of being the source of the outbreak.

The outbreak, Spain’s first since 1994, has been detected only in wild animals in the Collserola hills outside Barcelona, with no cases reported on farms.

Authorities have discovered the virus in 26 wild boar carcasses in the six km (four-mile) confinement area imposed by authorities after the outbreak. Cresa is located within the same area.

(Reporting by Jesus Calero, editing by Andrei Khalip and Ed Osmond)

How is Spain's ASF Outbreak Impacting Global Pork Trade?

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 22:24:30 GMT

Since African swine fever (ASF) was recently confirmed in Spain in a wild boar for the first time since 1994, the virus has now been confirmed in at least 11 more wild boars, found dead in the same area near Barcelona.

Spain is the European Union’s largest pork producer and the No. 2 global pork exporter, trailing only the U.S. The area where the boars were found, the Catalonia region, accounts for about 8% of Spain’s hog production.

Due to China’s recent ASF regionalization agreement with Spain, China only suspended imports from establishments in Barcelona province, explains U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Vice President for Economic Analysis Erin Borror.

South Korea also recognizes ASF regionalization for 14 EU member states, including Spain, so Korea will continue to accept imports from regions of Spain not affected by the virus, she adds.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom and all EU member states will also accept imports from ASF-free regions of Spain.

Trading partners suspending all pork imports from Spain include Japan and the Philippines, which are Spain’s second- and third-largest non-EU export markets, respectively. Malaysia, which is sixth-largest and where Spain holds 35% market share, also suspended all imports, along with Mexico, Taiwan and Thailand. Borror points out those closed markets may provide some incremental export opportunities for U.S. pork.

“I think Spain is really a success story and something that the U.S. industry should aspire to, because they were very quickly regionalized,” Borror says. “Only about a third of Spain’s exports to third-country markets are fully suspended, so that means the majority of their trading partners have accepted EU regionalization, at least the majority based on volumes.”

As she considers the big impacts from this situation, Borror says there should be some opportunities for U.S. pork in Japan, thinking mostly frozen loins.

“For Malaysia, I am optimistic,” she adds. “With the potential for a mix of cuts, and just given the limited facilities eligible globally to supply that market, there should be some incremental business for the U.S.”

Britain Lifts Blanket Ban on Spanish Pork Imports, Adopts Regional Controls

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 19:46:31 GMT

Britain said on Wednesday it would allow pork imports from parts of Spain unaffected by African swine fever (ASF), reversing a blanket ban imposed last week after the country reported its first cases of the disease in more than three decades.

The move aligns Britain with the European Union’s regionalization approach, which restricts trade only from outbreak zones.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said imports from the Barcelona area would remain suspended, while pork from other regions could resume.

“Following an outbreak of African swine fever in Spain, all fresh pork and other impacted products from the region affected are restricted,” a Defra spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement.

It said that “exports from disease-free areas of Spain can continue as normal”, adding that they would continue to monitor the situation.

Spain confirmed nine ASF infections in wild boar near Barcelona, prompting emergency measures in Catalonia, a region central to pig farming. The virus does not affect humans but is fatal to pigs and has no vaccine or cure.

Spain is the EU’s largest pork producer and a major supplier to Britain, shipping 37,600 tonnes of pork so far this year worth over 112 million euros ($130 million).

The decision comes after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged Britain and other trading partners to continue buying from regions outside the containment zone.

Spain resumed shipments to China from unaffected regions earlier this week after Beijing narrowed its restrictions to Catalonia.

Other countries including Mexico and Canada have yet to adopt the same approach as the EU and Britain, and they continue to block pork from across Spain, Spanish officials said.

A task force of EU vets began work in Barcelona on Tuesday to help contain the outbreak.

(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Nigel Hunt; Editing by Catarina Demony)

Sánchez-Vizcaíno Tells How Spain Stopped African Swine Fever

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 05:07:16 GMT

It’s no surprise that Jose Sánchez-Vizcaíno took an interest in vaccines at a young age. When he read his first book about Louis Pasteur at age 7, he was hooked. After all, the word vaccine was tossed around a lot in his home growing up. When he was 2 years old, he was struck with the polio virus – at a time when no vaccines were available in Europe.

“I did not understand exactly what a vaccine was when I was a kid, but I detected that it was something very special,” Sánchez-Vizcaíno says.

The polio virus may have left him with limited mobility for the rest of his life, but it didn’t prevent his desire to discover new things and adventure to new places. In fact, after reading about Pasteur, Sánchez-Vizcaíno decided he would find out what all the fuss was about and study viruses and vaccines.

Today, Dr. Sánchez-Vizcaíno, DVM, of Madrid, Spain, is known for eradicating the world’s largest and most misunderstood virus – African swine fever (ASF) – from Spain. If anything, his colleagues say his condition paired with his genuine optimism, prepared him to overcome the worst challenges posed by ASF.

“ASF is an underestimated disease,” Sánchez-Vizcaíno says. “It’s very resistant and can go everywhere. Studying ASF over the years has taught me that the same disease can have different faces. It is very important to understand the different epidemiological scenarios of the disease in order to be able to eradicate it.”

A Look Back at ASF in Spain
Once upon a time, ASF was confined to Africa. However, in the late 1950s, it appeared in Portugal from Angola. Then, it began its slow creep across Europe, reaching Spain in 1960 before moving on to France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, between 1978-1980, it also appeared in Brazil, Cuba, The Dominican Republic and Haiti.

In 1960, when ASF appeared in Spain, it spread within what was essentially an undeveloped sector. During the 1960s, as the Spanish economy began to take off, pig production changed. In just a few years, Spain went from family-type holdings to an industrial organization characterized by intensive swine production systems, the incorporation of European breeds, and the use of new handling techniques, Sánchez-Vizcaíno says.

Pig production, which until then had been located mainly in the south and southwest and operated as outdoor production systems, moved to industrial farms that were focused in six regions and resulted in the extensive movement of livestock within the Spanish territory.

In 1960, the virus spread widely in certain areas of the country. Initially, the usual picture of ASF was acute clinical signs and high mortality. This changed through the years to an endemic disease characterised by mild to subclinical forms and a mortality rate below 5% in infected herds. Thereafter, confirmation of the disease by laboratory diagnosis was required.

Spain marked the first location where ticks were documented as being associated with the disease spread. Ornithodoros erraticus, a species of soft tick found in certain southwestern areas where the disease was endemic and where the outdoor production of Iberian pigs was located, were discovered to be carriers of the ASF virus.

When ASF entered the wild boar population in Spain, it became a major concern as contact among wild boars and domestic pigs is high. In some places, the wild boar population in Europe is over 700%, Sánchez-Vizcaíno says.

The Road to Eradication
The process to eradicate ASF in Spain was not easy.

Because there is no vaccine for ASF, the Spanish eradication program from 1985 to 1995 was based on the detection of ASF-infected animals by laboratory diagnosis and the enforcement of strict sanitary measures. Researchers combined epidemiological and laboratory techniques with predictive models and early detection techniques.

“We had to find new diagnostic tools for the detection of positive and carrier animals on a large-scale level,” he says.

In 1979, his team developed the ELISA test for ASF antibodies detection. He says his proudest contribution to the ASF eradication effort was developing this test and establishing it with a national diagnosis network.

“ELISA worked great to detect carriers and positive animals because it was sensitive and specific,” he says. “ELISA was very important for the eradication process. We eventually adapted another ELISA test to detect the soft ticks that played a critical role in the spread of ASF in outdoor production facilities in Spain.”

After 35 years of working to eradicate this disease, Spain was finally declared ASF-free in 1995. Eradicating a disease in an endemic area is not easy, Sánchez-Vizcaíno says.

“I learned that each epidemiological scenario is different with ASF,” he says. “For example, controlling the disease in large operations with high biosecurity is much different than controlling the disease in backyard farms.”

Spain: The Economic Impact of African Swine Fever

Learn how Spain became a top pork exporter, after the country recovered from African swine fever outbreaks. Read more now.

Although the virus is always the same, the disease does not always present itself in the same way.

“There is no single prescription to control or eradicate a disease,” he adds. “During this process, we couldn’t think about the disease alone.”

He says they had to take into account the social, cultural and historical factors involved, especially in endemic areas. Perception of the disease was a critical hurdle to overcome.

“Everybody was adapted to live with the disease and was used to it,” he says. “They always asked me, ‘After so many years, why do we have to eradicate now?’ I learned that you have to motivate people by showing the advantages of eradication and proving that it is possible.”

Sánchez-Vizcaíno’s relentless pursuit of ASF answers and application of the latest research methods to advance ASF control and eradication has made a huge mark on the swine industry, says Montserrat Torremorell, DVM, associate professor at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. She first met Sánchez-Vizcaíno when she was a veterinary student in Spain.

“His experience eradicating ASF from Spain gave him a leading advantage at a time when almost nobody in Europe (or almost worldwide) was pursuing ASF as the area of research,” Torremorell says. “He led a high biosecurity research lab (BSL-3) where they were able to conduct research on ASF. That research helped educate control and eradication efforts and advanced vaccine development.”

The Fight’s Not Over
As ASF spreads across Europe and Asia, there is no question that the pursuit continues to stop this disease from impacting the global swine herd.

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