Agriculture will investigate whether the plague virus in Catalonia originates from a laboratory

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) has decided to open a new investigation into the origin of the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) detected in Catalonia after receiving the report from the European Union (EU) reference laboratory, which does not rule out that the virus may come from a "biological containment facility." According to MAPA, the report from the Animal Health Research Center (CISA-INIA), located in Valdeolmos (Madrid), shows that the viruses currently circulating in the EU member states belong to genetic groups 2-28, and not to the new genetic group 29, to which the virus causing the outbreak detected in Cerdanyola del Vallés (Barcelona) belongs. The Barcelona virus, explains MAPA, is "very similar" to that of genetic group 1 that circulated in Georgia in 2007. The finding of a virus similar to the one detected in Georgia "therefore does not exclude that its origin may be in a biological containment facility," revealed Agriculture. It can be ...