The announcement was made on Monday by Catalonia’s Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, during a visit to Lleida. According to him, the latest positive cases were detected over the past 12 days and do not affect either the already established restriction zones or the ongoing outbreak response operation, which involves around 200 personnel.
Authorities clarified that the animals concerned died after the first ASF cases were detected in the outbreak zone in the Cerdanyola area.
The minister also announced that the first meeting of the Wild Boar Board will take place on Wednesday. The main objective of this new body will be to define a strategy to contain the wild boar population in the region. The meeting will be held at the Catalan government headquarters and chaired by President Salvador Illa.
In total, 621 samples from wild boars have been analysed, most of them originating from a 20-kilometre radius around the Cerdanyola outbreak. The latest data indicate a positive rate of approximately 8% of the total animals tested.
According to Òscar Ordeig, the key objectives of containing the outbreak within the initial 6-kilometre radius have so far been achieved. Inspections of 55 pig farms located within the outbreak zone have also been completed, with no infection detected, while efforts to identify the origin of the virus are ongoing.
PigUA.info, based on materials from catalannews.com