PSA emergency
The appointment of three sub-Commissioners, with specific mandates, to deal with ASF (African swine fever) highlights how the concerns expressed already last year by Coldiretti Molise, they were more than well founded. But while at the level of the Regions in which the PSA is present, we are witnessing the implementation of all the useful tools to contain the presence of wild boars, which represent the main vehicle for transmitting the infection, in Molise nothing has yet been done, despite the Last November, a meeting was held at the Prefecture of Campobasso on the problems arising from the exponential increase in wild boars in the regional territory, which was also attended by the Extraordinary Commissioner for African Swine Fever, Dr. Vincenzo Caputo.
Increasingly high risk
On that occasion, Commissioner Caputo invited the Molise Region, represented by the Regional Councilor for Agriculture, Salvatore Micone, to quickly draw up a control plan for the species; a document which, after more than three months, is said to be nearing completion but of which, to date, despite the availability shown there by the Councillor, there is no trace, with the increasingly high risk that the PSA will also reach in our territories causing enormous damage to livestock farming, as well as creating heavy restrictions on the free movement of people. “Now – stated the regional President of Coldiretti Molise, Claudio Papa – we need to act quickly against the invasion of these animals, also evaluating the possible establishment of containment barriers. There is no more time to waste - added Pope - If we do not act immediately we risk condemning hundreds of agricultural and livestock businesses to the closure, already severely tested by the serious economic crisis generated first by the pandemic and by the Russian-Ukrainian and Middle Eastern conflicts Then".
Not just economic damage
“The problem of damage caused by wildlife – echoed by the Regional Director, Aniello Ascolese – constitutes one of the major critical issues that regional agriculture and animal husbandry are suffering and which risks causing the collapse of the entire agricultural sector which in Molise – Ascolese underlines – represents one of the main driving forces of the regional economy”. Unfortunately, however, the damage caused by wild boars does not just stop at economic damage. In fact, more and more often, these animals cause road accidents, even fatal ones, attack farmers in their daily work in the fields and enter population centers undisturbed without fearing the presence of man.
40 thousand wild ones
According to a rough estimate, there are over 40.000 wild boars in Molise, a number that is far from the two animals per square kilometer indicated for maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. A real and very serious emergency against which Coldiretti has been fighting for years with all possible means. Proof of this is the activation, at the instigation of Coldiretti Molise, of the selection hunt first and subsequently, through the organization of specific courses, the qualification in the region of 184 selection hunters: subjects authorized to intervene all year round where it is detected the presence of these ungulates on cultivated land. We are talking about a real attack on companies and people which is exacerbated by the risk of spreading Psa. For this reason, in the absence of concrete acts, essential for the containment of the species, Coldiretti Molise will evaluate further trade union actions to be implemented to protect agricultural and livestock entrepreneurs, in order to allow them to be able to carry out their work normally to safeguard the company income and in the interest of the entire community (source: Coldiretti).