Different investigations are trying to clarify the origin of the African swine fever outbreak that (Barcelona) forced the Generalitat to establish a 20-kilometer safety belt around the place where the first victim appeared. With all the alarms activated, the livestock sector has intensified its controls due to the risk of the virus reaching its pig farms and has seen prices fall and some purchasing countries restrict purchases of products from the affected area. , a laboratory dependent on the Generalitat, is in the eye of the storm as a possible vector of contagion. And if confirmed, the Catalan Administration risks having to face liability claims for losses caused to a sector that exports 8,000 million euros each year.
CReSA is part of the network of centers of the Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA), a public company of the Generalitat attached to the Department of Agriculture. Hence, its possible responsibility as a transmitter is a weakness for the Administration if it is proven that it is located within the campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). “If it is possible to attribute the damage caused to a public institution, financial liability can be requested for the incorrect actions of the Administration,” says Marta Franch, Professor of Administrative Law at the UAB. In his opinion, the companies that would like to complain will not be able to abide by the measures applied to contain the outbreak, because they were proportional, but they will be able to abide by the laboratory’s actions.
Joan Manuel Trayter, professor in the same subject at the University of Girona, is of the same opinion. “You have to demonstrate, through an expert, that swine fever has caused you some losses and that there is a cause-effect link.” In his opinion, if the CReSA ends up being designated, the Generalitat will not have the option of arguing force majeure due to the restrictions during the covid, which forced the closure of commercial establishments of all types.
Companies have one year to claim once damage to their business has occurred. From there, the Generalitat can respond within a maximum period of six months. Administrative silence is the same as a denial, so both avenues open the way for a complaint to be filed in the contentious courts, with the option of reaching the Supreme Court if appeals are chosen. The road is long and each company, or livestock farm, has to act alone. Employers could assist in the automation of processes but not in opening collective cases.
Until now, companies specializing in pork have been affected by a drop in price (in the middle of the pre-Christmas season, when prices do not collapse) and the closure of imports in some countries, such as Japan and the Philippines. China, the largest buyer of pork from Spain, has limited restrictions to the province of Barcelona. Likewise, tens of thousands of pigs have been slaughtered from farms near the infection zone, whose meat has been focused on the domestic market.
that compensation can be requested from the Generalitat, assures its director, Giuseppe Aloisio. “We are focused on containing the outbreak, which is the most urgent thing: limiting it to wildlife, because if it jumps to farms, the scenario will be different,” he explained, waiting for the final results of the three investigations. “First it has to be confirmed and then we’ll see, because the whole process can be very long,” says Pere Roqué, president of the in Catalonia. The spokesperson for a large meat company, however, does admit that there are beginning to be comments in the sector about the opening of this route. Aloisio denies it: “it is not even on the table.”
The appearance of swine fever in the urban park of Collserola on November 26, three decades after the last case, is the focus of three investigations that are currently being carried out. One is carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, opened on December 5 after receiving an analysis of the virus sequencing. In parallel, in an investigation that has fallen on a Cerdanyola Court of First Instance.
and that they could have used the pathogen in their experiments, near the place where the corpses of the two infected wild boars were found. All eyes, however, are focused on CReSA, of which there is proven evidence that it used the strain of the virus that caused the outbreak and is immersed in reform works. There are research spaces with a biosafety level 3, which is necessary for experiments with viruses such as African swine fever.
