The Department of Agriculture of the Generalitat reported this Friday the detection of , two of them outside ‘zone zero’, the 6 kilometer radius from the first infected wild boar. Specifically, these two wild boars that tested positive were located in an urbanization in Molins de Rei (Barcelona). The new findings have led the Generalitat to expand the area of the municipalities in the high-risk zone: there are now 14 localities with the incorporation of Molins de Rei and El Papiol. The Department of Agriculture has considered in a statement that these two outbreaks are “secondary” as they are very close to the initial area in Cerdanyola del Vallès and within the safety radius of 20 kilometers.
With the new 13 cases, there are now 155 infected wild boars located in Catalonia since the appearance of the disease at the end of last November. In fact, the Scientific Committee for Advice in Relation to the ASF Outbreak already warned, last week, that with the data from January where infected animals were detected next to the C58 in Terrassa Norte or in the C16 in Rubí, it was not ruled out that the outbreak will jump the initial six kilometers radius. Something that was made public this Friday.
Rossend Saltiveri is the owner of a pig farm in Ivars d’Urgell (Lleida), more than 110 kilometers from the ASF outbreak. In addition, he is responsible for the pork sector of the agricultural union Unió de Pagesos. Saltiveri knows that receiving news such as the location of new infected wild boars harms the sector. “Spain will be declared an ASF-free country when 12 months have passed since the detection of the last infected level. Every time a new wild boar with plague appears, it delays the recovery of the sector,” he denounces. The price of a kilo of pork has fallen 30 cents since the first infected wild boar was found. This Friday, farmers sell a kilo of pork for one euro. A price that is below production costs. “So far in the crisis, the Spanish pig sector has lost almost 282 million euros. It is true that the two new infected wild boars have not left the 20 kilometer area, but they have left the six kilometer circle. The obligation of the administrations is to reinforce security and eliminate all these animals to return to normality as soon as possible,” concluded Saltiveri.
EL PAÍS has contacted the general secretary of the Business Federation of Meat and Meat Industries (FECIC), Ignasi Pons, who has also demanded greater intensity in wild boar hunting, but wanted to calm the indignation: “The radius has not gone beyond 20 kilometers, there are no farms in either Molins or Papiol and in all of Spain there is not a single infected farm.” Pons regrets that these new findings “do not help” the conversations that are being held with the markets of Mexico, the Philippines or Japan, the three countries that have closed the export of pork to all of Spain and which are being tried to convince to only exclude the province of Barcelona – as Chinda does – from their exports of Spanish pork. “The really worrying thing is that a positive wild boar appeared in Lleida or Girona,” concluded Pons.
The Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, has announced that this Friday a resolution will be issued to extend the restrictions on the natural environment to Molins de Rei and El Papiol and that the N-2 and B-23 will be reinforced with fencing. Agriculture has already informed the mayors of these towns of their inclusion in the high-risk area and has communicated it to the ministry, the European Commission and the sector.
In fact, the mayor of Molins de Rei, Xavier Paz, has informed EL PAÍS that it was Ordeig himself who informed him of the appearance of infected wild boars within the territory. “We know that we will have limitations in the natural environment and I want to ask that you allow us access to the Llobregat river park because it is far from the area where the wild boar was located. What is clear is that we cannot allocate local police to prevent citizens from entering the rural area,” he concluded.
Ordeig, in a press conference held in Lleida, highlighted: “The message we would like to give above all is one of calm, of not relaxing.” He asked for “patience” and recalled that he has always said that containing the disease requires time. As he explained, “captures are increasing within the high-risk area and we will continue to do so.”
“We will continue with raids in the low-risk area and what we would ask, above all, is not to let our guard down,” said Ordeig, who stressed that it was foreseeable that some cases would appear outside the high-risk area.
“It was foreseeable that this could happen. It has happened in other places. What worried us most is that the positive cases would increase and that they could go towards the north or towards the Sierra de Marina. It was not completely ruled out that this could happen,” he stated.
In this sense, he pointed out that the countries that have done it best “have taken months and years” and has insisted that his department is acting “in a rapid, coordinated and transparent manner.”
“We – he said – will try to go as quickly as possible, but we will not move from the recommendations, the intensity and the speed that the experts set for us.” The minister has assured that the Generalitat’s priority continues to be containing the outbreak, reopening markets and continuing to investigate the origin of the virus.
