Around 90 municipalities in northeastern Spain have been quarantined following an outbreak of a highly contagious disease in pigs.

Thirteen cases of African swine fever have been confirmed in dead wild boars in Catalonia.

It is suspected the outbreak started after the disease was leaked from a laboratory in the Spanish region where scientists were experimenting with it just days before.

Investigators are assessing the possibility that the leak came from Research Centre on Animal Health (CReSA) in Bellaterra, north of Barcelona. The Catalan government has declared an emergency over the outbreak.

Restrictions were imposed within a 6km contamination zone and a wider 20km infected area.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Environmentand Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, African s

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