BARCELONA/MADRID, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Spain’s Catalonia region has pledged to curb its wild boar population, including by ramping up culls, after African swine was detected in several animals outside Barcelona in the country’s first outbreak since 1994.
That has threatened pork exports from Spain, the European Union’s leading producer of the meat, which accounts for a quarter of the bloc’s output with annual exports worth about 3.5 billion euros ($4.05 billion).
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The outbreak was first detected last week in two wild boars in the Collserola mountain range outside Barcelona, and seven more boars in the same area have since been confirmed to have died from the disease.
Spanish officials have said they expect more positive cases.
Although harmless to humans, the virus spreads rapidly among pigs and wild boar. So far, no farms have been affected.
Catalan regional leader Salvador Illa said local authorities had been working for some time to reduce the wild boar population due to its threat to public health, but that the recent outbreak has shown the need to accelerate the effort.
