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Police Return to Barcelona Lab as Swine Fever Probe Reaches Madrid

The new searches deepen a court-led investigation into whether IRTA-CreSa research facilities are linked to the outbreak and raise fresh questions about biosafety oversight.

Overview

  • Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guardia Civil carried out a second coordinated search of the IRTA-CreSa laboratory in Cerdanyola as part of a judicial probe into the swine fever outbreak.
  • The Guardia Civil also searched a Madrid building linked to the CSIC in enquiries that investigators say relate to the same outbreak origin question.
  • The investigation is being overseen by Juzgado de Instrucción 2 de Cerdanyola del Vallès and follows an earlier court-ordered police deployment to IRTA-CreSa roughly six months earlier.
  • Regional authorities continue a culling plan to empty a six-kilometre surveillance zone around the initial infections, an operation made difficult by Collserola’s terrain and nearby dense population.
  • The probe and containment measures involve coordination between the Generalitat, the Ministry of Agriculture and the European Commission and could prompt scrutiny of lab biosafety practices and regulatory oversight.