A PUBLIC park bordering the city of Barcelona that first shut in March following the discovery of a dead boar infected with African swine fever is set to remain closed until at least the end of the year.
The Catalan minister for agriculture, Oscar Ordeig, said Collserola natural park would remain off-limits to the public for ‘at least three months’ after a spate of new positive cases were identified last week.
“We cannot give a message that the crisis is over and that access to the park is possible,” the minister said, justifying the prolonged restrictions as crucial for the ‘safety of people, of the health crisis, to not transmit the virus and to not scare the animals’.
There had been recent hope that the outbreak was beginning to come to an end and restrictions could be eased after more than a fortnight passed without new cases.
But that quickly vanished after five more wild boars were found dead with the disease.
Three of the cases were located in Sant Cugat del Valles, one in Barcelona and one in Molins de Rei.
The decision to prolong restrictions until at least December has angered local officials, with the mayor of Sant Cugat del Valles, Josep Maria Valles, urging the regional government to designate safe zones within the park that residents can access.
“The citizens of Sant Cugat have run out of patience,” he said.
“Enough is enough, we are looking for solutions: we cannot keep postponing, postponing and postponing.”
The mayor said officials had provided a lack of ‘information to the population’ about the ongoing outbreak, adding: “I believe that there is a lack of empathy on the part of the Catalan government with the citizens of Sant Cugat and with other cities and towns around Collserola.”
Restrictions remain in place across 19 municipalities in and around Collserola, including Sant Cugat, Sabadell, Terrassa, Rubi, Cerdanyola, Molins de Rei, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and parts of Barcelona itself.
The current outbreak originated in Bellaterra, a Catalan municipality on the outskirts of Barcelona, in late November last year.
African swine fever is harmless to humans but potentially fatal to pigs, with warnings that a spread into domestic herds used to produce pork would be catastrophic for the industry.
Spain is the world’s third-largest exporter of pork, with the industry worth around €8.8 billion a year.
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