Spanish officials have been forced to declare a national emergency after 13 cases of swine flu were detected , posing a threat to the country's valuable pork exports. The disease, which causes fatal internal bleeding in animals, has been confirmed in wild boar in Spain during the latest flu season, sparking fears that it will spread to other animals.

Experts have been deployed to 39 pig farms in a 12-mile area around the initial Catalonia outbreak zone, with a high-security lab that has been undergoing maintenance, the Centre for Research in Animal Health (CReSA) in the Bellaterra area of Barcelona province, reportedly being blamed.

While authorities have yet to detect a trace of the disease in any other animals, El País newspaper reported that in late November, a wild boar died o

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