What began as a restriction focused on several municipalities in Vallès and Baix Llobregat has ended up crossing the invisible border of the city: African swine fever (ASF) is now officially in Barcelona, which means that, for now, walks along the Carretera de les Aigües are over.
The confirmation of the first positive case in a wild boar within the municipality of Barcelona has prompted the Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, to announce the total closure of Collserola. This is not a minor decision or a suggestion; it is a full-scale shielding of more than 8,000 hectares of natural park in an attempt to curb an outbreak that already has more than 220 positive cases throughout the metropolitan region.
A preventive closure to save the sector
Although the name of the disease is frightening, the first thing to clarify in order to avoid panic in the supermarket is that African swine fever does not affect humans. You will not become infected by walking in the mountains, but your boots can be the vehicle that transports the virus from one place to another. The problem is strictly economic and health-related for wildlife: if the virus reaches pig farms, the impact on the Catalan pork sector, one of the driving forces of our economy, would be catastrophic.
For this reason, the Generalitat’s Contingency Plan establishes that, in the presence of infected animals, the movement of people in critical areas must be restricted as much as possible. As wild boar are animals that move easily throughout the massif, the appearance of the case in Barcelona has forced all sectors to unite and close access from the city’s mountain neighborhoods, adding to the restrictions that already existed in Sant Cugat, Cerdanyola, and Molins de Rei.
What you can (and cannot) do from now on
The measure has a major impact on the weekend plans of thousands of Barcelona residents. With the total closure of the access roads to the districts of Horta-Guinardó, Nou Barris, and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, activities that are so much a part of our lives, such as mountain running, cycling routes, and the classic barbecues in the area’s picnic areas, have been suspended.
Rural agents and the park’s security service will intensify surveillance to prevent anyone from crossing the perimeter. The aim is to avoid the “scattering effect”: if we enter the forest and scare the wild boars, they will move to other areas in search of peace and quiet, spreading the virus to territories that are still clean. It is an exercise in collective responsibility: the sooner the outbreak is controlled, the sooner we will be able to return to Tibidabo via the usual trails.
Barcelona is the latest to fall on a list that now resembles a map of the surrounding area. With this new expansion, there are now 18 municipalities under severe restrictions. The towns of Vallès, such as Sabadell, Terrassa, and Sant Cugat, are now joined by all the municipalities in the southern belt that share a border with the mountains, such as Esplugues and Sant Just Desvern.
