Liivi Issak, manager of Nurme Farm, and Katrin Linkov, manager of Rõstla Pig Farm in Saimre, who were at the Saimre-Agro office in Viljandi, do not doubt the Spanish reference laboratory's findings that ASL is present. However, as the samples were not collected in special safety containers but regular plastic bags, they believe there  is a possibility they could have simply been mixed up due to human error.

"We put the samples in plastic bags we purchased ourselves and then put those bags in another plastic bag. Then we write on the bag where the sample was taken from, what is in the sample, the date, and the diagnosis of the animal's death," said Katrin Linkov.

Linkov believes there is a high probability that the samples have been mixed up.

"By the time the sample reaches the laboratory, it has passed through the hands of several people," said Linkov.

To clarify, however, samples were taken repeatedly from the first pig that died, and all of them tested positive for the disease.

Kristi Metsa, regional manager of the Animal Defense League (Loomakaitse Liit) for South Estonia, also believes that there should be no rush to cull the pigs in Nurme.

"Once again, only the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) result has been evaluated, and it is positive. In fact, the tests that should confirm whether the PCR could be a false positive are still in progress, and those results are not available at the moment. We also have not found a clear answer anywhere in the documents regarding whether the correct sample was sent there. In reality, we still have serious concerns that this may not be the correct sample at all," said Metsa.

Liivi Issak, manager of Nurme Farm, confirmed that none of the pigs on her farm have fallen ill since the discovery of the infected animal. Issak has been instructed to be ready to cull her pigs on Thursday morning (Auguts 14) at 7:30 a.m.

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