Spain has sent more than 100 members of its military to assist in containing an outbreak of African swine fever detected just outside Barcelona — a discovery that has raised alarms for the nation’s powerful pork-export market.
The troops will work alongside roughly 300 Catalan regional personnel already operating in the Collserola Natural Park, where two wild boars tested positive for the virus last week. These are Spain’s first confirmed cases since 1994. ALSO READ: African swine fever detected in two wild boars near Barcelona.
According to Catalonia’s agriculture minister, Oscar Ordeig, the 117 specialists from the army’s emergencies unit (UME) will take on ‘work with drones, disinfection, prospection, search and removal of animals’. He delivered the update during a press briefing.
Access to the park has been tightened, and authorities are analysing eight further suspected cases located within an initial six-kilometre perimeter, Ordeig said.
Experts suspect the infection could have been introduced via a contaminated sausage transported by road and eaten by a boar, though Ordeig stressed the explanation remains unproven.
African swine fever poses no risk to humans, but it spreads easily among pigs and is often deadly. An outbreak reaching Spanish farms could inflict serious damage on the world’s third-largest producer of pork products.
Spain exports close to three million tonnes of pork annually to more than 100 international markets, but Agriculture Minister Luis Planas recently acknowledged that a third of those destinations have temporarily suspended imports as a precaution.
Speaking in Italy on Monday, Planas urged the public to maintain ‘calm’ about consuming pork and exercise ‘prudence’ to keep the virus from reaching livestock operations.
The disease continues to circulate in parts of the Baltic region and eastern Europe, having moved westward from Russia in 2014.
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Em reuneixo amb la consellera @nuriaparlon i els cossos i forces de seguretat desplegades a la zona de vigilància per coordinar una resposta ràpida i contundent davant la crisi sanitària de pesta porcina africana.
— Òscar Ordeig (@oscarordeig) December 1, 2025
Prop de 400 efectius desplegats entre mitjans propis i @UMEgob. pic.twitter.com/sgLY9rcNq9
La #UME continúa reforzando el despliegue con 117 militares para cumplir las misiones coordinadas con @gencat en la lucha contra el brote de peste porcina africana. pic.twitter.com/lMxeWAXtHu
— UME (@UMEgob) December 1, 2025
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