The single regional number is active 0573-306655, dedicated to the reporting of wild boar carcasses found dead, to monitor and prevent the possible presence of African swine fever (psa) on Tuscan territory. The phone number is active 7 days on 7, from 8 to 20 and will allow the caller to be put directly in contact with the veterinary service of the territorially competent ASL. The invitation to anyone who finds it a wild boar carcass on the Tuscan territory, therefore, is to call the single regional number to report it promptly, indicating its position.
Remember that psa is an infectious disease, which affects wild boars and pigs, but is not transmissible to humans. In Tuscany, attention on the psa continues to be high and the regional crisis unit for veterinary epidemic emergencies has already been activated, which brings together the Local Health Authority, the Zooprophylactic Institute and the Region, both at regional and local level (province of Massa-Carrara), after the number of municipalities already included by the Ministry of Health in the “infected area” in Piedmont and Liguria has risen to 114, with the consequent enactment of the hunting ban in the province of Alessandria, in agreement with the Ministry of Agricultural Policies.
After the ministerial arrangements, the regional departments for the right to health and agriculture have launched, among the first in Italy, a passive surveillance operation thanks to which the operators - coordinated by the local Atc (Territorial hunting area) and by the north-west ASL, with a special kit distributed by the health company to operate in biosecurity - have the task of searching and reporting on the territory wild boar carcasses and analyze them. The goal is the timely detection of any infection. In addition, a task force (with offices of the health, agriculture, environment and civil protection departments, local health authorities, zooprophylactic institute, law enforcement agencies, park authorities, ATC and provinces) was established in Tuscany with a resolution of the council. will meet on a permanent basis and will discuss with the associations involved and directly interested.
Among the containment measures, the recent one is also mentioned call for 4 million euros of the Department of Agriculture, intended for the construction of suitable fences, capable of limiting the interactions between reared pigs and wild ungulates (mainly wild boars), potential vectors of African swine fever. Last summer, moreover, on the initiative of the Department of Health Law, an in-depth path was started on the surveillance and prevention of the spread of psa with the police, the director general of the experimental zooprophylactic institute of the Regions Lazio and Tuscany, the animal health directors of the ASL and the heads of the competent regional sectors, aimed at strengthening of the prevention network, control and fight against this health risk.
This resulted in a series of training and information initiatives on the management of psa epidemic emergencies, starting from the training courses organized, on a provincial basis, by the department for the right to health in collaboration with the department for agriculture and the Tuscan ASL, aimed at hunters, ATC and provincial police. Together with the regional wildlife sector, the Local Health Authority and the Zooprophylactic Institute Information and training courses were then prepared for the foremen of wild boar hunting teams and, again in the summer, information courses were held for breeders and trademark protection consortia. In September in the province of Arezzo Finally, an exercise was started together with the Tuscan ATC with simulation in the field to search for wild boar carcasses.