January 7, 2026

 

Catalonia, Spain, confirms 18 more wild boar hit by ASF

 

The Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food of Catalonia, Spain, announced on January 5 that 18 more wild boar have fallen prey to African swine fever (ASF) near Cerdanyola del Vallès.

 

Confirmed by the reference laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, the results now bring the total number of boars affected to 47. The dead animals were discovered near the 29 previously reported cases in the Barcelona region.

 

So far, 621 wild boars have been analysed, with ASF detections representing just 8% of the total number of animals examined.

 

According to Catalonia's Agriculture Minister Òscar Ordeig, this week's significant number of positive cases is due to accumulated detection over the holidays and the intensification of tracing and active surveillance that has been maintained throughout the territory over the past few weeks. Ordeig notes the region's 55 farms continue to be ASF-free and all detections have only been found in wild boar within the established active surveillance area.

 

In late December, Barcelona's Institute for Research in Biomedicine determined that none of the viral strains in its laboratory match the strain from the current outbreak. Led by ICREA Research Professor Toni Gabaldón, the study analysed 17 strains of the ASF virus that have recently been worked on in the laboratory and none of those strains genetically match the strain responsible for the current outbreak.

 

The lab said the differences observed are too significant to establish any direct relationship, as the virus detected in Cerdanyola del Vallès presents dozens of specific mutations and a large genomic deletion that do not appear in any of the laboratory strains analysed.

 

While the lab cannot confirm that the outbreak originated from these samples, the Ministry's and European reference laboratories will have to confirm the results.

 

In early December, Spain's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food announced it was launching an investigation into the origin of the outbreak, after receiving a laboratory report that suggested the virus may not have come from animals or animal products from any European Union country where the disease is currently present. All viruses currently circulating in the member states belong to genetic groups 2 through 28, not to the new genetic group 29, which is responsible for the current outbreak in Barcelona.

 

According to the scientists, 29 is similar to genetic group 1 that circulated in Georgia in 2007. A reference virus, the "Georgia 2007" strain is frequently used in experimental infections in confinement facilities to conduct research or to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccines.

 

Before the first detection in two wild boars on November 26, 2025, Spain had been ASF-free for three decades, with the country officially declaring eradication from the Iberian Peninsula in 1995.

- National Hog Farmer