The Minister of Agriculture of the Generalitat, Oscar Ordeigannounced the creation of a committee of six biosecurity experts which will carry out the audit at IRTA and other research centers on African swine fever (ASF) to “assess whether there may be a potential risk” of escape from this disease. The group, which will meet this Tuesday, will be coordinated by the director of IRTA, Josep Usall, while the scientific direction will fall to the doctor Laura Pérez, responsible for the animal and biological safety sector of the Animal Health Research Center (CISA), located in Madrid.
Ordeig said this on Monday during a press conference from the Department’s headquarters in Lleida, during which he explained that this group was made up of the “best experts” in biosecurity. The doctor will also be part of it. Gorka Adurizhead of the animal health area at the Neiker BRTA center, in the Basque Country; the professor Massimo Palmarinidirector of the virology department at Erasmus MC Rotterdam; the doctor Gonzalo Pascualtechnical director and head of biological safety and biocontainment of the Carlos III Institute of Madrid; the head of the IRTA-CReSA high containment unit, Xavier Abad; and the doctor Diane Ramirezhead of the animal production infrastructure platform and president of the IRTA animal experimentation ethics committee.
It is not excluded to integrate new experts, But they are the ones who, from this Tuesday, will define the “work plan” of the centers that must be audited, “analyzing the protocols, the facilities, the flows and the type of dead and alive samples that are used (…) and, therefore, if there may be a potential risk outside the CReSA laboratory”, explained the advisor. In addition, confirmed that the number of positives remains at 13: “We have the outbreak contained. No positives have been found outside the radius,” he assured.
In this sense, he asked for “caution” and insisted on “letting the scientists work”. According to Ordeig, this the week will be “decisive for having more information” on the origin of the appearance of this disease in the Sierra de Collserola (Barcelona).
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