The effects of the crisis, although without consequences for humans, keep the pig sector on alert. It is for this reason that the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Fisheries of the Generalitat, Òscar Ordeig, announced this Monday the launch of the 360º Biosecurity Plan. It is a battery of a dozen measures aimed at strengthening animal safety, protecting public health and guaranteeing the competitiveness and economic viability of the Catalan pig sector, which leads national production with 40% of production and a census of eight million animals.
Ordeig announced this during a press conference from the headquarters of Càrniques Juià, a major pig farm in Girona. The audit carried out at the Animal Health Research Center (CReSA) – the Generalitat laboratory accused of the alleged swine fever leak – did not reach any conclusion on the origin of the epidemic.
The plan is based on a biosecurity strategy that dates back to 2015, but responds to a context of “increased health pressure, with the appearance of emerging diseases and a society more demanding in terms of food safety,” explained the advisor.
The strategy includes a dozen areas of work. The government intends to set up a system for risk analysis and more precise monitoring of pig farms. This will require the active participation of the business community, which will benefit from more intensive communication campaigns to warn about biosecurity and the consequences of non-compliance with regulations.
This measure also includes self-consumption farms, whose activity may be limited in the event of non-compliance. This is a historic demand from the Catalan agricultural union Unió de Pagesos, saved by the avian flu crisis which forced the slaughter of three million laying hens in Spain last November. The union then warned that many of these farms are not registered because their owners believe they will have to pay exorbitant taxes on these farms.
The hypothesis initially launched by Ordeig that the pathogen arrived in Catalonia through a transporter sandwich led the government to propose intensifying controls on these vehicles. To do this, drivers in the sector will need to be trained in cleaning and disinfection.
The plan will be supervised by an operational technical commission, with the participation of Territorial Services, the Animal Health Service and representatives of the sector, who will meet monthly to ensure monitoring. The document also envisages reviewing biosecurity surveys annually.
The government’s policy responds above all to the protection of the economic weight of the sector in Catalonia. Two weeks ago, the price of fattening pigs fell by six cents and placed a live kilo at 1.04 euros, whereas the day before the detection of the first wild boar positive for swine fever it was 1.30 euros.
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