18/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's spokesperson said on Friday that the origin of the swine fever virus affecting several herds in East Anglia had been identified by the laboratory of Hannover, which is the EU's reference laboratory for this type of epizootic disease. Whereas one could have feared that it was in fact a resurgence of the swine fever epidemic of 1997/98 (especially in the Netherlands and Germany), it has been observed that the virus had come from wildboar illegally imported from Asia in 1998. Meanwhile, whereas the disease remains limited to the five herds signaled out in East Anglia, the British Agriculture Ministry has decided, as a precautionary measure, to extend the ban on selling or transporting pigs to other counties (notably Lancashire and the Isle of Wight).